{"id":34344,"date":"2025-02-25T20:47:17","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T20:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/25\/trump-strips-security-clearances-from-law-firm-tied-to-jack-smith-cases\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T20:47:17","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T20:47:17","slug":"trump-strips-security-clearances-from-law-firm-tied-to-jack-smith-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/25\/trump-strips-security-clearances-from-law-firm-tied-to-jack-smith-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump strips security clearances from law firm tied to Jack Smith cases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>FIRST ON FOX:<\/strong> President Donald Trump is expected to sign a memo Tuesday suspending the security clearances for employees of a top D.C.-based law firm who assisted in former special counsel Jack Smith&#8217;s investigations, Fox News has learned.<\/p>\n<p>The memo, first reported by Fox News, outlines the administration&#8217;s sweeping plans to suspend security clearances for all counsel members involved in Jack Smith&#8217;s dual special counsel investigations into Trump, the White House confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the latest in a string of punitive actions Trump has taken to strip power from his political and legal foes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The memo orders the federal government to review and terminate the engagement of law firm Covington &amp; Burling by the U.S. government &#8220;to the maximum extent permitted by law,&#8221; and will conduct a detailed evaluation of funding decisions to ensure they with American citizens\u2019 interests and the priorities of this Administration, as detailed in executive directives.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/more-than-1-million-federal-employees-complied-musks-what-did-you-do-last-week-email-wh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>MORE THAN 1 MILLION FEDERAL EMPLOYEES COMPLIED WITH MUSK&#8217;S \u2018WHAT DID YOU DO LAST WEEK\u2019 EMAIL: WH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Among those targeted is Peter Koski, the former deputy chief of the Justice Department&#8217;s public integrity section. \u00a0Covington vice chair Lanny Breuer, who helped lead the Justice Department&#8217;s criminal division under then-President Barack Obama, is also expected to be squarely in the crosshairs of the review. Breuer, for his part, had recruited Smith in 2010 to head up DOJ&#8217;s Public Integrity Section.<\/p>\n<p>The two made headlines earlier this month after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/02\/14\/jack-smith-justice-department-019350\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Politico reported<\/a> they had been offering pro bono legal services to Jack Smith prior to his resignation from the Justice Department last month.<\/p>\n<p>The White House said Tuesday that the firm had offered Smith $140,000 in free legal services.<\/p>\n<p>In revoking the government clearances of top Justice Department personnel, the administration said Trump is &#8220;sending a clear message that the Federal Government will no longer tolerate the abuse of power by partisan actors who exploit their positions for political gain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Federal Government will review and terminate engagement of Covington &amp; Burling LLP by the United States to the maximum extent permitted by law,&#8221; the memo is expected to say, according to a White House official.<\/p>\n<p>Smith was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/politics\/judiciary\"><u>tapped by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland<\/u><\/a> in 2022 to investigate the alleged effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as well as Trump&#8217;s keeping of allegedly classified documents at his Florida residence after leaving the White House.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/jack-smith-submit-trump-findings-doj-before-leaving-what-happens-next\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">previously indicted Trump in D.C<\/a>. on charges stemming from his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Smith also brought federal charges against Trump in Florida for his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Both cases were dropped after Trump&#8217;s election, in keeping with a longstanding Justice Department memo that states it is against DOJ policy to investigate a sitting president for federal criminal charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The memo says it is a violation of the\u00a0separation of powers doctrine to do so. \u00a0They have also cited a July Supreme Court decision that widened the criteria for immunity for sitting presidents.<\/p>\n<p>Covington &amp; Burling LLP did not immediately respond to Fox News&#8217;s request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><i>This is a breaking news story. Check back soon for updates.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump is expected to sign a memo Tuesday suspending the security clearances for employees of a top D.C.-based law firm who assisted in former special counsel Jack Smith&#8217;s investigations, Fox News has learned. The memo, first reported by Fox News, outlines the administration&#8217;s sweeping plans to suspend security clearances for &#8230; <a title=\"Trump strips security clearances from law firm tied to Jack Smith cases\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/25\/trump-strips-security-clearances-from-law-firm-tied-to-jack-smith-cases\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Trump strips security clearances from law firm tied to Jack Smith cases\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}