Press Releases

Washington, D.C. (February 26, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, issued the following statement after President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order targeting and stripping security clearances from Covington & Burling LLP, the law firm representing former Special Counsel Jack Smith:

“The President’s appalling and lawless revenge tour continues. Since taking office, Donald Trump has targeted his perceived political opponents by firing them from career government civil service jobs without cause, intimidating them with multi-billion-dollar lawsuits, subjecting them to baseless investigations, freezing their bank accounts, and stripping them of security clearances. 

“Yesterday, he threatened lawyers at Covington & Burling who provided pro bono legal representation to a distinguished career civil servant and prosecutor facing Trump’s unyielding harassment and persecution for doing his job: former Special Counsel Jack Smith. 

“The Constitution confers on American citizens the right to legal representation—a right which Donald Trump has enjoyed and availed himself of more than the vast majority of Americans throughout his countless civil lawsuits, criminal investigations, threat letters and legal troubles, not to mention corporate transactions. Trump’s attack on lawyers for providing representation to an apparently disfavored client has now put a great American law firm in his crosshairs.

“Make no mistake, the scandalous actions undertaken by Trump against Covington & Burling, and the lawyers who donated their time to represent Special Counsel Jack Smith, are utterly incompatible with the First Amendment, Due Process, the right to counsel and the rule of law. These actions send an unambiguously chilling threat of revenge and retribution: Help my perceived enemies, and you will suffer the wrath of the entire federal government through investigations, financial penalties, and political vengeance. 

“These are the tactics of autocrats and dictators in authoritarian countries. They are intolerable for a leader of our great democracy. The Judiciary Democrats unequivocally rebuke this scandalous turn of events and urge our colleagues across the aisle to find the courage to do the same.”