President Donald Trump is using legal settlements leveraged by his executive orders to assemble a stable of top litigators to pursue his aims – and is now broadening their mandate to include tense trade talks and deregulating coal.
Trump laid the groundwork for the move by targeting a series of individual law firms through executive orders, such as one Addressing Risks from Perkins Coie LLP.
Some are fighting. Others elected to settle, offering to provide millions in free legal services for favored Trump causes to dispense with new limitations firms say could crush their business.
The White House has announced three separate $100 million settlements with firms, along with a $40 million settlement with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, which agreed to provide pro bono legal services – a haul that Trump made sure to brag about this week.
The early indications were that Trump would use the firms as part of his crusade to take on woke universities, and fight anti-semitism on campus, even as some free speech advocates argue the move is sweeping up protected speech that is merely anti-Israel.
On Tuesday, Trump revealed new ends for for legal conglomeration, while crowing about the settlements.
Have you noticed that lots of law firms have been signing up with Trump? $100 million, another $100 million, Trump said at an event where he signed orders to boost coal production.
President Donald Trump crowed about legal settlements and has floated new ways to deploy attorneys whose firms have pledged to back shared causes
Trump said the settlements were for damages that they’ve done. But they give you $100 million and then they announce but we have done nothing wrong. And I agree they’ve done nothing wrong, Trump said facetiously. But what the hell – they give me a lot of money considering they’ve done nothing wrong.
Despite his rage at the firms like Paul, Weiss for harboring nemesis former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Trump evinced respect for their legal chops.
And we’ll use some of those people. Some of those great firms – they are great firms too. They just had a bad moment. But we’re going to use some of those firms to work with you on your leasing and your other things, Trump said at the coal event. And they’ll do a great job. I think theyre going to do a fantastic job.
He made the comment after calling for litigation against states or entities that try to crack down on coal-fired plants, which the Biden administration tried to restrict amid concerns about climate change.
Trumps staff secretary, Will Scharf, told Trump that radical leftist states were enacting an agenda that discriminates against coal, against secure sources of energy in a way that was unconstitutional.
Then Trump dropped another issue the legal eagles could work on. You’ve been hearing about tariffs, Trump said, noting that Japan and South Korea and other nations were seeking to open negotiations.
My only problem is I’m not sure we’ll have enough -- we’re going to have to use those great law firms, I think, to help us with that. We’re going to probably do that, actually. We’re going to use them.
We’re getting them for the right price. Because we have to, we need a lot of talent, we have a lot of countries coming in that want to make deals, he said.
Trump made his comments while new groups of attorneys filed amicus briefs allying themselves with Perkins, Coie, which is fighting the executive order targeting it.
Among them were a series of bar associations – who pointed out the settlements.
These measures move to co-opt law firms to become instruments of the executive branch, working on behalf of the President’s interests and policies, rather than as officers of the courts. That purpose is evident from his rescission of a similar executive order targeting Paul Weiss in exchange for its agreement to, among other things, provide $40 million in pro bono services “to support the Administration’s initiatives,” according to the brief.
It quoted Trumps Truth Social post on Paul, Weiss agreeing to the settlement. It said Perkins Coie could probably follow suit to get out of its current position. But that would mean acquiescing to the President’s demands at the expense of the firm’s right to represent the clients it chooses and fiercely advocate for the clients’ interests.
The threats impose a vicious cycle of coercion on firms. Those who agree to certain terms to lift an executive order remain captive to the threat of a follow-on order if the President decides the firm stepped out of line, according to the brief.
The brief also quotes former Trump chief White House strategist Steve Bannon saying they were trying to put top firms out of business and bankrupt them.
The settlement that ended the order against Paul, Weiss committed the firm to backing the President’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, and other mutually agreed projects.
Trump said the law firms would work to lift coal industry restrictions
Paul, Weiss elected to settle, prompting blowback from within the legal community
Trump for the first time said firms who settled would help hammer out trade deals. Japan has assembled a negotiating team including minister of economic revitalisation Ryosei Akazawa
Also filing a new brief was a group of former national security, intelligence, and foreign policy lawyers and former officials.
The Constitution did not make the President a king empowered to punish subjects arbitrarily based on animus or whim. Even setting aside the many constitutional rights violated by his order, the President possesses no general national security power that empowers him to sanction U.S. citizens simply because they disagree with him, they wrote.
Nor does any Supreme Court decision or historical practice authorize the President to unilaterally issue punitive bills of attainder targeting American citizens against whom he holds discriminatory animus. If national security considerations can justify this order, then national security could be invoked to justify any arbitrary executive act, they wrote.
Filing the brief was lawyer Justin Nelson, who represented Dominion Voting Systems in its $787 million settlement with Fox News and Harold Hongju Ko of Yale University Law School.
Another friend of the court brief, from the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, wrote that Trumps executive orders pose a grave threat to our system of constitutional governance and to the Rule of Law itself.
The ability of lawyers to zealously represent controversial clients without fear of government reprisal is essential for our individual liberty, central to an effective judicial branch, and wholly consistent with American history, values, and our constitutional democracy.
They brought up countries including Columbia, the Philippines, and China that prosecuted and jailed lawyers who dared to represent opposition figures or challenge government actions, with predictable results for the Rule of Law and the integrity of the legal profession in those countries. They also invoked Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian lawyer who died in state custody.
It is no exaggeration to say that we have entered a dangerous era in which any lawyer who dares to challenge the actions of the current administration, or even represent causes it disfavors, risks punitive and professionally retaliation, they added.
The settlement with Milbank, which Trump posted about April 2, said the firm will perform at least $100m in pro bono legal services during the Trump administration such as assisting veterans and public servants, ensuring fairness in our judicial system, and combatting antisemitism.
Trumps first order targeted the Covington & Burling firm Feb. 25. The settlements came after Trump issued orders to yank security clearances and bar attorneys from government buildings. It targeted all members, partners, and employees of Covington & Burling LLP who assisted former Special Counsel Jack Smith during his time as Special Counsel. Smith oversaw Trumps prosecution in the January 6 and classified documents cases.