Ex-Privacy Board Members Hire Arnold & Porter Over Trump Firings

Two Democrats fired by President Donald Trump from the nation’s top independent intelligence and privacy oversight watchdog retained law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP for potential legal action in response to their terminations.

Elisabeth Theodore, partner at Arnold & Porter, confirmed she is representing former Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board commissioners Ed Felten and Travis LeBlanc regarding their January terminations. Theodore declined to elaborate on the scope of any possible disputes until they’re filed.

Felten, whose term was set to expire on Jan. 29, could have remained on the board until a nominee was confirmed to replace him. LeBlanc was supposed to serve until Jan. 29, 2028. The bipartisan, five-member board now has only one member, Republican Beth Ann Williams.

The Trump administration has not announced new nominees for the board, but PCLOB spokesperson Alan Silverleib said in a statement announcing the firings effective Jan. 25 that the PCLOB still has “significant ability to continue functioning with its full staff” until new members are nominated and confirmed.

Felten didn’t return a request for comment. LeBlanc referred to Theodore for comment.

PCLOB chair Sharon Bradford Franklin, whose term was also set to end Jan. 29, was terminated simultaneously. She didn’t respond to requests for comment on any plans to retain counsel or sue the Trump administration.

Trump in his first week in office vowed to fire the Democrats if they didn’t resign by Jan. 23, an unprecedented political interference with the board overseeing certain federal spying authorities and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. The decision came days after Trump fired at least a dozen inspectors general at federal agencies in a sudden late-night purge of officials assigned to investigate the government.

The lack of a quorum for the privacy oversight board could pose a significant threat to the United States’ data sharing agreement with the European Union. The board is tasked with regularly reviewing a redress mechanism created by a Biden-era executive order allowing individuals in the EU to bring complaints regarding access to their data. The redress mechanism and PCLOB’s oversight has been described by EU leaders as an essential agreement.

LeBlanc said on Jan. 27 the decision was a “setback” for government transparency.

“Oversight is tough work, but it is absolutely essential to accountability in a democracy,” he said in a statement at the time.

Arnold & Porter is involved in several other ongoing lawsuits against the Trump administration, including a case by lawyers’ associations, global health, and international business groups seeking to stop the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development.