Judge stops Trump order barring law firm behind Steele dossier from entering government buildings
A federal judge halted the Trump administration Wednesday from enforcing key provisions of an executive order that targeted powerhouse Democratic law firm Perkins Coie, which played an important role in crafting the so-called Steele dossier.US District Judge Beryl Howell granted the firm’s request for a temporary restraining order against President Trump’s bar on its lawyers from entering government buildings or engaging with federal agencies.Howell, an Obama-appointed judge, concluded that the “retaliatory animus” of the order was “clear on its face” and suggested that it violated constitutional protections against viewpoint-based discrimination.Last week, President Trump signed an order that yanked security clearances from the Seattle-based law firm and pushed for canning Perkins Coie’s contracts with federal clients.He blasted Perkins Coie as “dishonest and dangerous.”Perkins Coie, which has about 1,200 lawyers on staff, promptly fired back with a lawsuit on Tuesday, accusing the president of mounting a politically motivated vendetta against it.
The firm’s suit did not challenge the security clearance revocation.During the 2016 election cycle, Perkins Coie paid Fusion GPS to engage in opposition research against Trump on behalf of the Clinton campaign.The Steele dossier, which was compiled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele, unfurled scathing and many unproven accusations of ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.While subsequent assessments, such as the Mueller report, agreed with the conclusion that Russia wanted Trump to win in 2016, many key details of the dossier have been discredited.An inspector general report later concluded that “the FBI was not able to corroborate a single substantive allegation contained in the Steele Reports.”One of the most outlandish accusations in the now-debunked Steele dossier suggested that Russian intelligence had acquired salacious videotapes involving Trump during his 2013 s...