WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, national security attorney Mark S. Zaid filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the unlawful and retaliatory revocation of his security clearance by President Donald J. Trump. The complaint, filed against the Executive Office of the President and four federal agencies, asks the court to declare the executive action unconstitutional, reinstate Mr. Zaid’s clearance, and block further implementation of the policy.

Mr. Zaid was one of 15 individuals named in a March 22 presidential memorandum ordering the immediate revocation of their security clearances. The lawsuit alleges that the order violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process, and the First Amendment rights of both attorneys and their clients.

"No American should lose their livelihood, or be blocked as a lawyer from representing clients, because a president carries a grudge toward them or who they represent,” said Mr. Zaid. “This isn’t just about me. It’s about using security clearances as political weapons.”

Mr. Zaid has spent more than three decades representing whistleblowers, intelligence officers, and national security officials—under both Republican and Democratic administrations. He is one of a small number of private attorneys in the U.S. with longstanding cleared access to classified information granted by the government as part of his law practice. The loss of his clearance effectively bars him from representing current and future clients in national security cases, including lawful whistleblowers.

"The executive order was clearly aimed at political retribution,” said Amb. Norm Eisen (ret.), executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, which is co-representing Mr. Zaid. “If left unchallenged, it opens the door for any administration to silence lawyers opposing it and therefore to cut off public servants from having the counsel of their choice.”

"Mr. Zaid’s security clearance is being revoked out of retribution, plain and simple," said Margaret Donovan, attorney for Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder. “It is an unlawful attempt by the government to upend the adversarial system and punish lawyers out of vindictiveness.”

"The Administration admitted it revoked the clearance of a veteran, non-partisan national security lawyer to punish him for his proper representation of a client in the impeachment process," said Abbe David Lowell, founding member of Lowell & Associates. “That's illegal, unconstitutional, and exactly what this lawsuit will show.”

Mr. Zaid is represented by Lowell & Associates; Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder; Kevin T. Caroll; Kohn, Swift & Graf PC; Lankford & Reed; Feldesman Leifer LLP; and Democracy Defenders Fund.

You can read the full complaint here.

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Democracy Defenders Fund brings together a nonpartisan team to work with national, state and local allies across the country to defend in real-time the foundations of our democracy.

Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder, based in Connecticut, is a nationally recognized law firm that, in 2022, achieved a landmark legal victory on behalf of nine families of the Sandy Hook School shooting. The firm has also achieved record verdicts for people who suffer serious harm from violation of their civil or constitutional rights, medical malpractice, dangerous products, negligence, corporate or governmental abuse and commercial misconduct.

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