WASHINGTON — A well-known lawyer in Washington, D.C., sued the Trump administration on Monday over the revocation of his security clearance. He said it was “improper political retribution” that makes it impossible for him to keep working as a lawyer for clients in secret national security cases.
The case, which was filed in federal court in Washington, DC, is against a presidential memorandum from March that said attorney Mark Zaid and 14 other people should not keep their clearances because it was “no longer in the national interest.” Trump was very angry at people on the list, and some of them were politicians and lawyers. They included former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, New York Attorney General Letitia James, former President Joe Biden and his family, and others.
This was part of a larger campaign of revenge that Trump has been waging since taking office. He has done this by ordering the Justice Department to look into people he thinks are his enemies and by issuing broad executive orders against law firms that do work he doesn’t like.
His lawsuit says that since the memo came out, Zaid has been told by government agencies, such as the CIA, that he can’t get to secret information about ongoing cases because of Trump’s order. The lawsuit says that Zaid can’t keep working for clients in cases that need him to look over secret documents. This has the “immediate effect” of making it harder for him to “undermine his ability to continue to represent them and zealously advocate on their behalf in the national security arena.”
“By following the Memorandum, the Defendants have gone well beyond any guidance given to them by previous case law.” What they did instead was openly attack a sacred constitutional right: the right to ask the court or government agencies to do something on behalf of clients, the lawsuit says. “An attack on this right is especially sneaky because it puts Mr. Zaid’s ability to fight for other people’s rights without fear of being punished at risk.”
The lawsuit was brought by a group of lawyers, including Abbe Lowell, a seasoned Washington lawyer who just last week said he was starting his own law firm and would protect people Trump wants to hurt. James, the attorney general of New York, and Miles Taylor are two other clients. Taylor worked in Trump’s first government and was later found to have written an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times in 2018 that was very critical of Trump. Trump told the Justice Department last month to look into what Taylor was doing.
In his case, Zaid says that he has worked with clients from all political backgrounds for almost 35 years, such as government officials, law enforcement and military officials, and people who have reported wrongdoing. In 2019, he helped a whistleblower in the intelligence community tell about a talk between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine. This information helped start the first of two impeachment cases against Trump during his first term.
“His extensive experience and impressive credentials make him a very valuable lawyer for current and former federal employees who need legal help.” Because he is a lawyer who has sued the US government before, the case says, “he is no stranger to finding overreach and power abuse.” Which is exactly why he is now being sought after.