The funny* thing is, Trump has (falsely) claimed that Robert Mueller exonerated him in the Russia scandal. If so, why would the White House feel the need to retaliate against the law firm that employed him?

* not actually ...

The list is still growing. NBC News reported:

Trump signed an executive order today suspending the security clearances for employees at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP which previously employed Robert Mueller, a special counsel who led the Russia investigation after the 2016 presidential election.

The president’s directive accused the firm of, among other things, engaging in “obvious partisan representations.” Just as notably, the White House said in a statement that WilmerHale “rewarded” the former special counsel, whose investigation, in Trump’s estimation, “epitomizes the weaponization of government.”

Right off the bat, it’s important to emphasize just how utterly bonkers these circumstances are. There is no precedent in the American tradition of a White House punishing a private law firm because it hired a lawyer the sitting president does not like. This is not the sort of thing that is supposed to happen in a healthy and free democratic country.

Complicating matters, the idea that Mueller is some kind of super villain is so preposterous that it’s unsettling to see the White House put such a claim in writing. Mueller is, after all, a decorated Marine combat veteran, a lifelong Republican and the former director of the FBI.

Yes, he also oversaw an investigation into the Russia scandal, but (a) the scandal was real and serious, even if Trump pretends otherwise; (b) Mueller did nothing wrong before, during or after the probe; (c) serving as a special counsel does not mean a lawyer should be blacklisted for life; (d) Mueller was appointed by the Trump administration, which makes it hilarious to see Trump characterize his work as an example of “weaponization”; and (e) the president has spent the last several years claiming that Mueller cleared him of any wrongdoing in the scandal......

As for the larger context, not every major law firm is responding to the White House’s offensive the same way. One has already caved, and another appears prepared to caved preemptively to avoid a presidential attack.

That said, one of the targeted firms is challenging a Trump order in court, and just hours ago, two more firms filed separate lawsuits seeking to block enforcement of the president’s directive.

Trump boasted publicly earlier this week about law firms caving to his demands and giving the White House what it wants, but as things stand, not every firm is bending the knee.

A DC federal judge on Friday said he is inclined to grant WilmerHale a temporary restraining order against a Trump administration executive order, though there’s a question as to how broad it will be.

Judge Richard Leon of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said he will make his decision in a couple of hours.

WilmerHale filed a lawsuit earlier Friday, saying President Donald Trump’s order restricting security clearances for lawyers and scuttling contracts for the firm and its clients is unconstitutional. Trump issued the order Thursday, making WilmerHale the fifth major law firm the White House attacked in the last month.

The president targeted the firm over its ties to Robert Mueller, the former special counsel who led a probe into the 2016 Trump campaign’s alleged coordination with Russian state officials. “Mueller’s investigation epitomizes the weaponization of government,” Trump said in the order.

President George W. Bush appointed Judge Leon to the bench.

A judge on March 12 temporarily barred the administration from enforcing parts of a Trump executive order targeting Perkins Coie.