President Trump’s executive order targeting Special Counsel Jack Smith’s personal attorney and the attorney’s law firm, Covington & Burling, underscores an emerging policy targeting the agents of what Mr. Trump and his aides call “the weaponization of government.”

The new executive order appears to elevate the policy to a new level as it targets the business of private sector actors who were involved in the prosecutions of Mr. Trump. It suggests that peril could await firms who associate with Mr. Smith or any other of the 47th president’s antagonists. 

Mr. Trump said over the summer via social media that “OUR ULTIMATE RETRIBUTION IS SUCCESS!” — a possible retort to repeated accounts by the press during the campaign that he was intent on meting out “retribution” on his enemies. It appears, though, his success at retaking the presidency has hardly slaked his thirst for bringing low the prosecutor who charged him twice and whose cases were only dismissed after Mr. Trump won in November.

The presidential diktat, which was signed on camera from the Oval Office, orders the suspension of “any active security clearances held by Peter Koski and all members, partners, and employees of Covington & Burling LLP who assisted former Special Counsel Jack Smith.” Mr. Koski represents Mr. Smith pro bono and his services are personal in nature. They could be related to the possibility that Mr. Smith could face a criminal investigation. 

As Mr. Trump put Sharpie to paper he declared, “We’re going to call it the deranged Jack Smith signing, or bill. The weaponization of our system by law firms, even pro bono work they’re doing in order to clog up government, stop government. And nobody knows about it better than me and, hopefully, that will never happen again.” 

Mr. Trump added: “I’ve been targeted for four years, longer than that. You don’t tell me about targeting. I was the target of corrupt politicians for four years and then four years after that, so don’t tell me about targeting.”

The order envisions a purge of all contact between the federal government and Covington and orders a review of “all Government contracts” with the firm, which is a Washington powerhouse and has long been a redoubt of Democratic rainmakers like Attorney General Holder. 

The firm’s ranks have also included conservative luminaries like John Bolton — another enemy of the president who recently had his security clearance pulled — and the constitutional scholar Jack Goldsmith. Covington has a thriving national security practice, which could be threatened if its attorneys are bereft of the clearance to look at classified material.

A statement released by Covington avers, “We recently agreed to represent Jack Smith when it became apparent that he would become a subject of a government investigation. Covington serves as defense counsel to Jack Smith in his personal, individual capacity.” A filing by the special counsel disclosed that Covington provided $140,000 in pro bono “legal services” to the special counsel’s office. That filing is signed by Mr. Smith.

A search of government spending data undertaken by this correspondent does not show any active government contracts with Covington, but the order could affect Mr. Koski’s practice. His firm biography enumerates an expertise in “sensitive, high-stakes government and regulatory enforcement matters and internal investigations.” It is unclear how that kind of work could be hampered by the loss of a security clearance. 

Mr. Koski, a graduate of Stanford Law School, is no neophyte to the high-stakes world of politics at the Department of Justice. He served as deputy chief of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, and his time there overlapped with Mr. Smith’s leadership of that same department. That is likely where their bond was forged. Mr. Smith would eventually go on to prosecute war crimes abroad, while Mr. Koski migrated to private practice.  

Mr. Trump’s United States attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, took to X last week to declare, “Save your receipts, Smith and Covington. We’ll be in touch soon. #NoOneIsAboveTheLaw.” That now appears to have been an allusion to this order, which is hardly the only front on which Mr. Trump is moving against Mr. Smith, who has not been heard from since he resigned as special counsel days before Mr. Trump took the oath for a second time.

Messrs. Koski and Smith likely also have their eyes on the “Weaponization Working Group” crafted by Attorney General Bondi. That body, drawn from the upper levels of the DOJ, vows to probe “Special Counsel Jack Smith and his staff, who spent more than $50 million targeting President Trump, and the prosecutors and law enforcement personnel who participated in the unprecedented raid on President Trump’s home.”

Ms. Bondi explains in her memorandum chartering the group that she aims to “identify instances where a department’s or agency’s conduct appears to have been designed to achieve political objectives or other improper aims rather than pursuing justice.” She reassures: “No one who has acted with a righteous spirit and just intentions has any cause for concern about efforts to root out corruption and weaponization.”