Trump signs EO 14250 suspending WilmerHale employees' security clearances, directing federal contractors to sever ties with firm
President Trump signed Executive Order 14250 on March 27, 2025, directing federal agencies to suspend the security clearances of all WilmerHale employees and instructing federal contractors to terminate their relationships with the firm. The order cited WilmerHale's prior association with Special Counsel Robert Mueller — a former WilmerHale partner — and the firm's DEI policies as justification. It was the third in a series of retaliatory executive orders targeting law firms whose attorneys had represented parties adverse to the president or participated in legal investigations of him.
Actors
On March 27, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14250, "Addressing Risks from WilmerHale," immediately suspending the security clearances of all firm employees and directing federal agencies to terminate contracts with WilmerHale. The order also revoked WilmerHale employees' access to government buildings and Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIFs), and pressured federal contractors to sever any business relationships with the firm. The stated rationale was WilmerHale's prior association with Special Counsel Robert Mueller — a former WilmerHale partner who led the Russia investigation — and the firm's diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
EO 14250 was the third in a sequence of retaliatory executive orders targeting major law firms. Trump had previously signed EO 14230 against Perkins Coie on February 25, 2025, and EO 14246 against Jenner & Block on March 25, 2025. Each order followed the same pattern: identify a firm whose attorneys had represented parties adverse to Trump or whose alumni had participated in investigations of him, then deploy executive power — security clearance suspensions, contract terminations, building access revocations — to make the firm commercially untenable. Federal contractors doing business with the government faced implicit coercion to abandon WilmerHale or risk losing their own access to federal work.
A federal judge subsequently struck down EO 14250 as unconstitutional on May 27, 2025, finding it an attempt to chill the legal profession through government retaliation. The archive records the signing on March 27 as the originating abuse: the executive order itself, not the later judicial response, is the act of retaliation.
Why we recorded this
First Amendment protection extends to the legal profession: attorneys must be able to represent unpopular clients and participate in government investigations without facing retaliation. President Trump signed EO 14250 to punish WilmerHale for its attorneys' prior association with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the firm's DEI policies. Suspending employee security clearances and coercing federal contractors to sever ties with the firm weaponizes executive power against a law firm as retribution for lawful legal work. The archive records this as part of a pattern of retaliatory executive orders targeting law firms whose work was adverse to the president.
Sources
- Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Addresses Risks from WilmerHale — White House primary accessed June 27, 2026
- US suspends security clearances for lawyers at WilmerHale as they challenge Trump orders — ABA Journal secondary accessed June 27, 2026
See also
- Trump signs EO 14263 targeting Susman Godfrey, suspending clearances and barring building access
- Trump signed Proclamation 10948 banning new Harvard international student visas, directing State to revoke existing ones
- Interagency task force froze $2.2 billion in Harvard grants after university publicly refused White House demands
- Education Secretary McMahon barred Harvard from new federal grants, demanding governance overhaul and DEI compliance
- Interagency task force terminated additional ~$450M in Harvard research grants after president publicly defied administration demands