Kelly Taps ‘Bridgegate’ Prosecutor in Fighting Hegseth Demotion

Paul Fishman, the Arnold & Porter litigator who prosecuted “Bridgegate” officials, is helping US Senator Mark Kelly sue Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over a planned demotion.

Fishman, who also represented President Joe Biden’s brother, is part of a legal team that includes firm colleague Benjamin Mizer, who served in the Justice Department during the Obama and Biden administrations.

Arnold & Porter employs former Attorney General Merrick Garland and is among Big Law firms taking on matters that could draw the ire of President Donald Trump. The president last year attacked law firms for what he saw as a range of misdeeds, including what he termed “lawfare,” and he made deals with nine of them for $940 million in free legal services to avoid further attacks.

Arnold & Porter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit filed Monday by former astronaut Kelly (D-Ariz.) asks a federal court to vacate Hegseth’s letter censuring him and aims to block an effort to lower his military retirement rank. Hegseth targeted Kelly after the senator joined five other Democratic lawmakers who are military veterans in making a video suggesting that officers should refuse illegal orders.

“The censure, the grade-reduction process, and its inevitable outcome impose official punishment for protected speech, chill legislative oversight, and threaten reductions in rank and pay,” the complaint said.

Fishman was US Attorney for the District of New Jersey starting in 2009 until the first Trump administration forced him to resign in March 2017. He then joined Arnold & Porter, where he heads the crisis management and strategic response team.

He worked as a prosecutor on the case stemming from the “Bridgegate” political scandal, which resulted in the conviction of three allies of former Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for creating traffic jams near the George Washington Bridge. The US Supreme Court later overturned two of the convictions.

Fishman is also representing New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver (D), who was indicted by a federal grand jury over a confrontation with US immigration officers. He represented James Biden in 2023 when House Republicans subpoenaed the former president’s brother for an inquiry into his family’s financial dealings.

Mizer served as the acting associate attorney general, the Justice Department’s third-ranking official, according to his bio on the Arnold & Porter website.

Hegseth announced in a social media post last week that he plans to cut Kelly’s military rank and dock his pension over the video Kelly helped make. Kelly served for more than two decades in the US Navy and at NASA.

Hegseth’s move came after President Donald Trump’s previous calls for lawmakers critical of his military orders to be tried for sedition, saying in a Truth Social post the charge is “punishable by DEATH!”

The case is Kelly v. Hegseth, D.D.C. No. 1:26-cv-00081, complaint filed 1/12/2026.