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By David Thomas and Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump issued a proclamation on Thursday targeting law firm WilmerHale, the fifth time the president has taken aim at a major firm with connections to his legal or political adversaries.
The proclamation cited WilmerHale's ties to Robert Mueller, the former U.S. special counsel who investigated Russian contacts with Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
It also accused the firm of donating free legal work to support "destructive" causes related to immigration and voting, and said it discriminated based on race.
Like three earlier executive orders issued by Trump against other firms, the proclamation suspended security clearances held by lawyers at WilmerHale, restricted their access to government officials and ordered a review meant to terminate federal contracts held by the firm's clients.
A WilmerHale spokesperson said Trump's proclamation resembled an earlier executive order that was suspended by a judge.
"We look forward to pursuing all appropriate remedies to this unlawful order," the firm said.
Mueller retired from the firm in 2021 after a "long, distinguished career in public service," the spokesperson said. Mueller could not immediately be reached for comment.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump, a Republican, has vowed to target more law firms, accusing them of "weaponizing" the legal system against him and his allies.
A federal judge on March 12 temporarily blocked most of a similar executive order Trump issued against Perkins Coie, finding it likely violated the U.S. Constitution.
The president agreed to drop his executive order against Wall Street law firm Paul Weiss after it agreed last week to donate the equivalent of $40 million in free legal work to administration causes, and to commit to nonpartisanship and merit-based hiring.
An earlier, narrower order by Trump suspended security clearances for some lawyers at law firm Covington & Burling.
Trump last week directed the Justice Department to recommend similar moves against lawyers and law firms that handle immigration cases or that sued the government over the past eight years - a group that includes many of the largest U.S. firms.
WilmerHale, Covington, Perkins Coie and Jenner & Block, another firm named in an executive order earlier this week, are each representing clients in lawsuits against the Trump administration over issues such as immigration, transgender rights and firings of government workers.
In WilmerHale's case, the firm represents a group of inspectors general who allege the administration illegally ousted them. The firm also played a key role in lawsuits against the prior Trump administration.
Trump's moves against law firms have drawn growing condemnation from lawyers and legal experts. A group of 20 Democratic state attorneys general and the American Bar Association each warned on Wednesday that Trump's efforts posed dangers to the U.S. legal system by chilling lawyers' freedom to choose their clients.
WilmerHale, which has a large D.C. office just blocks from the White House, employs more than 1,100 lawyers and has a leading U.S. Supreme Court practice. Some of its major clients include Apple, Harvard University, Meta, and Tesla.
The Justice Department appointed Mueller early in Trump's first term to probe Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow.
In 2019, Mueller published a report that identified links between the Russian government and Trump's campaign. But Mueller, a former Republican-appointed FBI director, found there was not enough evidence to establish that Trump's campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Moscow.
Other prominent former government officials at WilmerHale include former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, and Seth Waxman, who served as U.S. solicitor general during the Democratic Bill Clinton administration.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward, Mike Scarcella and David Thomas; Editing by David Bario and Stephen Coates)
