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WA attorney general throws support behind Seattle law firm suing Trump
March 12, 2025 at 12:27 pm Updated March 12, 2025 at 2:14 pm
By
Lauren Girgis
and
Associated Press staff
The Washington attorney general led 21 other states in filing an amicus brief Wednesday supporting a Seattle law firm being targeted by President Donald Trump over its legal services during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The amicus brief argues that Trump’s efforts to punish Perkins Coie, a preeminent Seattle law firm, undermine the justice system and the First Amendment.
Trump signed an executive order last week designed to punish Perkins Coie by suspending lawyers’ security clearances, denying firm employees access to federal buildings and terminating their federal contracts. Perkins Coie, in turn, filed a lawsuit against the federal government arguing that the executive order was an illegal act of retaliation and called on a judge to block it from being implemented.
Later on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell granted a temporary restraining order sought by the firm, agreeing with the amicus brief claims. Howell said “such a circumstance threatens the very foundation of our legal system.”
The amicus brief, filed on behalf of 22 states led by Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, said Trump is on a “campaign of personal and political retribution.”
“Our court system depends on the willingness of lawyers to take on difficult cases and unpopular clients without retribution,” the brief states.
Perkins Coie represented the 2016 presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and also represented Democrats in a variety of voting rights challenges during the 2020 election. The firm made headlines in 2017 when it was revealed to have hired a private investigative research firm during the 2016 campaign to conduct opposition research on Trump. That firm, Fusion GPS, subsequently retained a former British spy, Christopher Steele, who researched whether Trump and Russia had suspicious ties.
“The President’s efforts do more than disadvantage private attorneys at a single law firm,” the brief states. “Through official action, the President has attempted to exclude certain lawyers and certain viewpoints from reaching a court of law at all.”
Trump’s executive order is his latest against the legal community. A separate order targeted security clearances of lawyers at another firm who provided legal services to former special counsel Jack Smith, who led criminal investigations into Trump and is now a private citizen.
The brief argues Trump’s actions pressure lawyers to limit their arguments and silence themselves. The president is punishing Perkins Coie for taking cases the administration disagrees with, the amicus brief states, undermining a fair legal system that should rest on lawyers being driven by loyalty to their clients, not fealty to those in power.
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WA legal challenges to the president’s orders “It is a menacing message to attorneys nationwide: unless they advance positions or represent clients favorable to the current administration, their livelihood may be at risk and their patriotism will be called into question.”
The judge’s temporary restraining order doesn’t block the administration from enforcing a provision that seeks to strip Perkins Coie attorneys of security clearance.
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, argued Wednesday that the president has the clear authority to take action against entities he believes present a threat to national security.
The brief points out that Perkins Coie has filed lawsuits against some of the states now supporting it in the president’s lawsuit, including Washington. The brief asks the federal judge to grant Perkins Coie’s motion to block Trump’s executive order from being implemented.
Trump had sued the law firm in 2022, along with Clinton, alleging a massive conspiracy to concoct the Russia investigation. The suit was dismissed.
“While government officials may dislike being the subject of criticism by lawyers in court, they may not use their power to punish or deter such speech,” the amicus brief states.
Lauren Girgis: 206-652-6591 or lgirgis@seattletimes.com.
Associated Press staff.
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