President Donald Trump has signed an Executive Order that will revoke security clearances for Perkins Coie and their access to federal resources. Perkins Coie is the law firm that hired the company responsible for crafting the so-called “Steele dossier” containing alleged salacious material and Trump’s alleged connections to Russia, which the president has denied.
“This is an absolute honor to sign,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “What they’ve done, it’s just terrible. It’s weaponization, you could say weaponization against a political opponent, and it should never be allowed to happen again.”
The executive order specifically suspends the security clearances of Perkins Coie’s employees until the completion of a review that evaluates its access to sensitive data to determine whether it is aligned with national interests.
The order also restricts the access of Perkins Coie to employees in government. The order also prohibits the federal government from hiring Perkins Coie staff without authorization.
The federal government will also be prohibited from employing contractors who use Perkins Coie, and agency heads are being ordered to cancel all contracts with Perkins Coie to the maximum extent legally permitted.
After Trump challenged Biden’s victory in 2020, the international law firm represented Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016 and the Democratic National Committee. They also represented former president Joe Biden.
Perkins Coie was first under scrutiny when Marc Elias hired Fusion GPS, an opposition research company, to do opposition research in April 2016 against the then-presidential nominee Trump for the Democratic National Committee and his opponent, Clinton.
Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele, a former British Intelligence Officer who compiled the “Steele dossier.” This document contained several scandalous, mostly unsubstantiated allegations. One such allegation was that Trump had engaged in sexual acts with Russian prostitutes.
Trump denied the allegations in Steele’s dossier and sued Orbis Business Intelligence. Trump’s lawyers claimed that the dossier caused him “personal and reputational distress and damage,” but in 2024, a London judge filed the suit.
BuzzFeed News first made the dossier public in 2017. In 2019, the Justice Department inspector general criticized the FBI and the agency for using this document as a basis to secure surveillance requests against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign advisor, in connection with the investigation of Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election.
The inspector general concluded that the investigation into Russia or the surveillance of Page was not motivated by any political motive.
Perkins Coie did not respond to requests for comments immediately.
