New exec order cites firm’s ties to ex-US special counsel in Trump-Russia probe
President Donald Trump has signed yet another executive order, this time targeting BigLaw giant WilmerHale, which has ties to the lawyer who led the investigation into Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
Signed yesterday, Trump’s latest order comes just two days after fellow US firm Jenner & Block received a similar directive. Notably, Trump makes special mention of Robert Mueller, the former US special counsel who led an investigation into Russian involvement in Trump’s first successful campaign for the presidency in 2016. Other recent targets include US firms Perkins Coie, Covington & Burling, and Paul Weiss who gave into Trump’s demands shortly afterwards and pledged some $40 million in free services, claiming the sanctions “could have destroyed” the firm.
WilmerHale, co-headquartered in Boston and Washington DC, is the fifth firm to be sanctioned. The executive order takes the usual shape, restricting WilmerHale lawyers from access to federal buildings and agents, suspends any security clearances, and limits eligibility for government contracts. This was in response to “significant risks” according to Trump, who alleged the firm engaged in “conduct detrimental to critical American interests” and had “abandoned” the legal profession’s “highest ideals”. Trump’s executive order cites WilmerHale’s “powerful pro bono practices”, “obvious partisan representations to achieve political ends”, and “efforts to discriminate on the basis of race”.
In Trump’s reasoning for the order, the US president references Mueller, who had been a partner in the firm’s Washington DC base from 2014 after a stint in the FBI. From May 2017 to March 2019, Mueller led a team investigation suspected Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections, when Trump won. The “Mueller Probe” also investigated Trump associates with potential connections to Russian officials and espionage, and any possible obstructions of justice by Trump and his associates. The investigation had found no evidence to prove a link between Trump and Russia, though Mueller wrote “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him”. Mueller retired from WilmerHale in 2021.
Trump’s previous order against Jenner & Block referenced Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor who was involved with Mueller’s investigation.
The order claims WilmerHale “rewarded Robert Mueller and his colleagues” and employs lawyers who “weaponize the prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process”. Trump described the Mueller investigation as using the “power of Federal Government to lead one of the most partisan investigations in American history” which Trump said led to “interfering” in aides’ ability to fulfil his first term agenda.
A WilmerHale spokesperson has said the firm was aware of the “unlawful order” and look forward to “pursuing all appropriate remedies”.
