Trump executive order targets Chicago-based law firm Jenner & Block
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday targeting a major Chicago-based law firm that previously employed Andrew Weissmann, who worked on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team to investigate suspected Russian interference in Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
The executive order names the law firm Jenner & Block. The order aims to probe the law firm’s security clearances, government contracts and its access to federal buildings. It alleges Jenner & Block “engages in obvious partisan representations to achieve political ends.”
Weissmann was a Jenner & Block partner from 2006 to 2011, and again from 2020 to 202.
He served as a lead prosecutor from 2017 to 2019 on special counsel Mueller’s team that investigated possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and any collusion with Trump’s campaign associates. Trump continually called the investigation a “witch hunt.”
“Jenner & Block has had a long history representing clients, paid and pro bono, in their most difficult matters since 1914,” a Jenner & Block spokesperson said in a statement. “Today, we have been named in an Executive Order similar to one which has already been declared unconstitutional by a federal court. We remain focused on serving and safeguarding our clients’ interests with the dedication, integrity, and expertise that has defined our firm for more than one hundred years and will pursue all appropriate remedies.”
Weissmann was a federal prosecutor for 15 years, served as general counsel for the FBI for three years and has taught criminal law at several universities. He also co-hosts a podcast called “Main Justice,” which was previously titled “Prosecuting Donald Trump.”
Chris Gair, a former assistant U.S. attorney and now a defense lawyer who recently defended former Alds. Ed Burke and Patrick Daley Thompson, called the executive order “blatantly illegal.”
“It’s an unconstitutional restriction on Jenner’s right to freedom of speech,” said Gair, whose 40-year law career included an eight-year stint at Jenner & Block from 2005 to 2013.
“It’s stupid because the things that he’s citing regarding Andrew Weissmann all happened after Weissmann had left Jenner,” Gair said of Trump’s executive order. “And I hope and pray that Jenner has the guts to stand up and fight.”
Tuesday’s executive order targeting Jenner & Block follows similar orders in recent weeks singling out other powerful law firms that have challenged Trump or that have ties to cases involving him.
This month, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell temporarily blocked parts of a Trump executive order that sought to impose punitive measures against the Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie, which worked with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016.
The Trump administration has since pushed back against the judge’s temporary order, with the Department of Justice trying to remove Howell, an Obama-pointed judge, from overseeing the Perkins Coie case.
Last week, Trump rescinded a similar executive order targeting the prominent law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Garrison & Wharton, after it cut a deal with Trump to review its hiring practices and provide millions of dollars in free legal services to support certain White House initiatives.
That executive order had singled out former Paul, Weiss attorney Mark Pomerantz, who was involved in an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office into Trump’s finances.
Brad Karp, chairman of Paul, Weiss, told colleagues in an email that he made the deal with Trump to avert consequences of the executive order because it “could easily have destroyed our firm.”
Contributing: Associated Press