President Donald Trump is directing state power at a Seattle law firm that has angered him. Targeting the opposition’s litigators is a tool oft-used by the world’s authoritarians.
Perkins Coie used to be anchored in corporate law, the firm of Boeing and the Puget Sound Power & Light Company. Longtime Boeing CEO William Allen and Puget Power boss John Ellis, Republican nabobs both, were alumni of the firm.
In the last 25 years, however, Perkins has developed a new specialty in election law. It represents the Democratic Party, the Democratic Campaign Committee, and the Obamas. Two Perkins partners, Ron Gould and M. Margaret McKeown, were Clinton appointees to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Thursday, Trump directed a vengeance-driven executive order at Perkins, doing so with relish. “This is just an honor to sign; what they’ve done is terrible,” said the President. Trump accused Perkins of using the law for “weaponization against a political opponent,” exactly what he has chosen to do.
The executive order is a series of orders. These include:
First, no federal contracts with Perkins Coie and cancellation of existing contracts where possible. Having welched on his own legal bills, Trump would have the government do likewise. Second, limiting access to federal buildings “where such access would threaten national security or otherwise be inconsistent with the interests of the United States.” Of course, lawyers argue cases in government buildings. And third, directing all cabinet agencies to “suspend all active security clearances for Perkins Coie attorneys” until the Trump Amirnistration determines whether such attorneys are “in the interests of.the United States.”
As if that’s not enough, Trump wants the Justice Department to investigate “whether large law firms reserve certain positions such as summer associate spots, for individuals of preferred races” and whether they apply a “discriminatory basis for promotions.” So much for bringing women and minorities into the profession of law.
The executive order deploys vicious language and speaks Trumpisn lies, begins by saying: “The dishonest and dangerous activity of the law firm of Perkins Coie has affected this country for decades.” Trump, who tried to steal the 2020 election, accuses the Perkins firm of trying to steal the 2016 election while working for “failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.” The reality was the firm’s gathering of critical research, normal in politics.
The law firm retained a firm named Fusion GPS to research rumors of ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. They retained a Brit security analyst named Christopher Steele, who produced a dossier of evidence, some convincing but other parts speculative and false, of a Trump-Russia connection. Trump was bitterly critical and in 2022 he sued the Clintons and Perkins Coie.
The real reason for Trump’s over-reaction, missed by national press, is that Perkins Coie has helped elect Democrats in tight races. Its lawyers have argued truth to power in courtrooms and the court of public opinion.
The Perkins firm made the case for Gov. Chris Gregoire in litigation over her 131-vote victory in the 2004 governor’s race. It stood by Sen. Maria Cantwell four years earlier. Its attorneys, Kevin Hamilton and Marc Elias, argued for Sen. Al Franken in Minnesota’s tight 2008 Senate race. The firm overturned GOP-sponsored election rules designed to keep Montana students and Native Americans from voting.
What do you do against an effective and well-funded opponent? The American way is to get the upper hand in a fair fight. The authoritarian way is to deploy state power. The Trump way is to deploy such power behind a curtain of lies.
Perkins Coie ain’t blinking. “It is patently unconstitutional and we intend to challenge it,” the firm said in a statement. Perkins Coie lawyers blew away Trump’s challenge to Joe Biden’s Georgia victory in 2020. Trump-appointed judges ruled against inept Trump counsel. The firm need not look too far for a good lawyer.
This article also appears in The Cascadia Advocate.
