Democrats investigate Trump's 'illegal shakedown' of law firms
Top Democrats on the House and Senate judiciary committees sent letters to two law firms that struck deals with President Donald Trump to avoid being punished for hiring or representing people who Trump considers enemies.
According to the Washington Post, Democrats Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut sent letters to Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Willkie Farr & Gallagher, both of which agreed to spend tens of millions of dollars on pro-bono legal work for Trump’s pet causes to get back in his good graces.
Wilkie Farr, which hadn't even gotten hit with a retaliatory executive order yet, cut a preemptive deal with Trump out of fear that he would punish the firm for hiring Doug Emhoff, husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris.
As Daily Kos legal expert Lisa Needham wrote last month: “What these firms have in common is the extreme crime of having represented Democrats.”
In the letters, Raskin and Blumenthal said that Trump’s use of executive orders to extract concessions from law firms amounts to "an illegal shakedown of the legal profession.” They also demanded that the firms hand over communications discussing the deals they cut.
They also asked for information on how these law firms were selected for punishment, a list of other firms facing possible sanctions, and whether the White House counsel’s office or the Department of Justice weighed in on the legality of the recent agreements.
"These orders do more than just take revenge against particular lawyers who have crossed Donald Trump. They are meant to send the message that it is dangerous to oppose him in court, that you are apt to suffer not just yourself, but also law firms that you're associated with will suffer sweeping penalties that can threaten their very ability to go on existing,” Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, told CBS News.
Similarly, professors David Cole from Georgetown Law and Amrit Singh from Stanford Law School echoed these sentiments in an op-ed for The Guardian.
“Donald Trump, who has launched his second term with a blizzard of blatantly illegal actions, many of which have been suspended by the courts, has decided to address the problem at its root. He’s targeting lawyers, punishing them for doing nothing more than filing lawsuits he opposes, or hiring lawyers he does not like. He has issued unprecedented executive orders penalizing five of the nation’s major law firms, and more are likely to come,” they wrote.
The two professors continued to call out Trump’s actions as an attack on “the rule of law.”
“These tactics, blatantly illegal, are designed with one goal in mind: to chill lawyers’ willingness to challenge his illegal actions. They are a fundamental attack on the foundation of the rule of law. And they are achieving their purpose, not because they are legal–they obviously are not–but because too many law firms are surrendering to Trump’s illegal demands,” they wrote.
And his efforts are having Trump’s desired effect.
According to the Washington Post, Biden-era officials said they’re having trouble finding lawyers who are willing to defend them, as the well-resourced law firms that once would have backed them are now steering clear.
And Trump has been bragging about how his efforts are working.
“They’re all bending and saying, ‘Sir, thank you very much.’ Law firms are just saying, ‘Where do I sign? Where do I sign?’” he said.
Trump promised to be a dictator on Day 1, and he’s succeeding.