After the Donald Trump administration revoked his security clearance in March, attorney Mark Zaid reported learning on Monday that the memorandum revoking his clearance is “no longer in effect” – and that his “access to classified info is restored”.
The development comes after Zaid sued the president’s administration in May over the revocation of his security clearance.
Zaid specializes in national security cases, and he previously represented a whistleblower at the center of Trump’s first impeachment – which focused on a phone call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zaid argued that the revocation of his security clearance was “improper political retribution” and that it jeopardized his ability to “to pursue and represent the rights of others without fear of retribution”.
It also meant that he could “no longer represent current or future clients in matters where doing so requires access to classified information”, he maintained.
On 23 December, federal judge Amir H Ali granted Zaid’s request for a preliminary injunction requiring the administration to “immediately and fully restore” his security clearance. The news Zaid shared on Monday confirmed that ruling had been fulfilled.
Ali in his order wrote, “Based on the preliminary injunction record, the court finds that Zaid’s representation of whistleblowers and other clients adverse to the government was the sole reason for summarily revoking his security clearance.”
The judge added that the administration had unduly “denied Zaid the process and individualized assessment afforded to others”.
Zaid’s security clearance was revoked in a Trump administration memo from March that named him alongside other individuals the president has considered enemies. Those included former president Joe Biden, his entire family, and several officials in his administration, including former vice-president Kamala Harris, who lost the 2024 election to Trump. Others named in the memo were the former US secretary of state Antony Blinken, the ex-national security adviser Jacob Sullivan, the New York attorney general, Letitia James, and Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump.
The White House said in the memo that it was “no longer in the national interest” for those named in the document to have access to classified information.
In a July interview with the Guardian, Zaid said that he had “no idea” why his name appeared on the March list.
“The action against me, I get,” he said. “It’s perfectly consistent with what I expected from him and his administration, but to have me included on that list and the order of our names, why? Why am I fourth, ahead of the president and vice-president?”
A statement on Monday evening on X from Zaid announced that the March memo was no longer in effect for him.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request to comment from the Guardian.
