Trump order hitting ex-Mueller prosecutor's firm is unconstitutional: judge
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President Trump points as he boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on May 23, 2025. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump's executive order stripping security clearances and contracts from law firm Jenner & Block is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Friday.
Why it matters: It's another loss in Trump's campaign to settle scores with attorneys who helped ex-special counsel Robert Mueller investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election.
- Trump targeted Jenner & Block because it had employed Andrew Weissmann, a prosecutor who worked on Mueller's team.
Threat level: U.S. District Judge John D. Bates said in his decision that Trump singling out Weismann and the decision to strip security clearances from Jenner & Block on account of the clients it serves violates the firm's First Amendment rights.
- "This case arises from one of a series of executive orders targeting law firms that, in one way or another, did not bow to the current presidential administration's political orthodoxy," Bates wrote. "Like the others in the series, this order—which takes aim at the global law firm Jenner & Block— makes no bones about why it chose its target: it picked Jenner because of the causes Jenner champions, the clients Jenner represents, and a lawyer Jenner once employed. Going after law firms in this way is doubly violative of the Constitution."
Catch up quick: Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders targeting Big Law firms that had represented his critics. Many of those firms have reached deals with the president, pledging nearly $1 billion to pro bono work on his behalf.
- Trump in his executive order targeting Jenner & Block had claimed "Andrew Weissmann's career has been rooted in weaponized government and abuse of power."
- Bates found that "it is evidently Weissmann's criticisms of the President and participation in a legitimate investigation of election interference that drew presidential disdain."
What they're saying: "This ruling demonstrates the importance of lawyers standing firm on behalf of clients and for the law. That is what Jenner will continue to do for our clients — paying and pro bono — as we look to put this matter behind us," the law firm said in a statement.
- "The decision to grant any individual access to this nation's secrets is a sensitive judgment call entrusted to the President. Weighing these factors and implementing such decisions are core executive powers, and reviewing the President's clearance decisions falls well outside the judiciary's authority," White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told Axios in an emailed statement.
