Trump unleashes AG Pam Bondi on law firms to combat baseless civil litigation against president

President Donald Trump has threatened new actions against lawyers and law firms that bring immigration lawsuits and other cases against the government that he deems to be unethical.

Trump said in a memorandum to US Attorney General Pam Bondi that lawyers were helping to fuel rampant fraud and meritless claims in the immigration system. 

He directed the Justice Department to seek sanctions against attorneys for professional misconduct.

The order also took aim at law firms that sue the administration in what Trump, a Republican, called baseless partisan lawsuits. 

He asked Bondi to refer such firms to the White House to be stripped of security clearances, and for federal contracts they worked on to be terminated.

Legal advocacy groups sounded the alarm on Saturday following Trumps directive.

Ben Wizner, a senior lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the commands sought to chill and intimidate lawyers who challenge the presidents agenda. 

Trump has separately mounted attacks on law firms over their internal diversity policies and their ties to his political adversaries. 

Courts have been the only institution so far that have stood up to Trumps onslaught, Wizner said. Courts cant play that role without lawyers bringing cases in front of them.

The ACLU is involved in litigation against the administration over immigrant deportations, including the expulsion of alleged Venezuelan gang members.

President Donald Trump has threatened new actions against lawyers and law firms that bring immigration lawsuits and other cases against the government that he deems to be unethical 

In a memorandum to US Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump said lawyers were helping to fuel rampant fraud and meritless claims in the immigration system, and directed the Justice Department to seek sanctions against attorneys for professional misconduct

The Trump administration has been hit with more than 100 lawsuits challenging White House actions on immigration, transgender rights and other issues since the start of the presidents second term. 

Legal advocacy groups, along with at least 12 major law firms, have brought many of the cases.

A White House spokesperson, Taylor Rogers, said President Trump is delivering on his promise to ensure the judicial system is no longer weaponized against the American people.

The memorandum specifically directs Bondi to assess lawyers and firms that have brought cases against the government over the past eight years.

Law firm Keker, Van Nest & Peters, which is working with the ACLU in an immigrant rights case against the administration, said in a statement that it was inexcusable and despicable for Trump to attack lawyers based on their clients or legal work opposing the federal government.

Representatives from other prominent law firms that are representing clients in cases against Trumps administration, including Hogan Lovells, Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie and WilmerHale, have not yet commented.

Trump issued executive orders this month against law firms Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss, suspending their lawyers security clearances and restricting their access to government buildings, officials and federal contracting work.

The president also last month suspended security clearances of lawyers at Covington & Burling, in each case citing the firms past work for his political or legal opponents.

Trump targeted DC law firm Paul Weiss because of its former partner Mark Pomerantz, who oversaw an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office into Trump’s finances 

The Keker firm on Saturday called on law firms to sign a joint court brief supporting a lawsuit by Perkins Coie challenging the executive order against it.

Paul Weiss on Thursday struck a deal with Trump to rescind the executive order against it, pledging to donate the equivalent of $40 million in free legal work to support some of the administrations causes such as support for veterans and combating antisemitism.

Lawyers are bound by professional ethics rules that require them to investigate allegations before filing lawsuits and not deceive the courts. 

Imposing disciplinary sanctions on lawyers who violate such rules falls on the court system, not federal prosecutors, though prosecutors can charge lawyers with criminal misconduct.

Lawyers at some companies and law firms skewered Paul Weiss online for capitulating to Trump.

Marc Elias, a former Perkins Coie partner and a top lawyer for Democrats, assailed the Paul Weiss agreement in a social media calling it a stain on the firm, every one of its partners, and the entire legal profession.

In an internal email to its lawyers, Paul Weiss Chairman Brad Karp defended the agreement, saying it was in line with the firms principles, including a commitment to remaining politically independent.

The firm, with more than 1,000 lawyers, major financial and technology industry clients and longstanding Democratic Party ties, would be free to focus on its client work now that the executive order had been rescinded, Karp said.

Karps email included a copy of the agreement with Trump that said the firm would hire and promote lawyers based on merit. 

The agreement circulated by Trump on Thursday had additional language, saying the firm agreed it will not adopt, use, or pursue any DEI policies.

Legal experts said Trumps orders against Paul Weiss and another big firm, Perkins Coie, marked an unprecedented attack on their ability to do business.

The order against Perkins Coie was life-threatening to the firm, its lawyer said last week in that firms ongoing lawsuit against the administration.

The memorandum specifically directs Bondi, a longtime Trump loyalist, to assess lawyers and firms that have brought cases against the government over the past eight years

Numerous lawyers, including some with links to Paul Weiss, took to social media to criticize the deal.

Molly Coleman, a former Paul Weiss summer associate and current executive director of the Peoples Parity Project, called the move unbelievably shameful and said Paul Weiss had failed to find the courage the moment requires.

Embarrassed to be associated with this firm today, a lawyer who previously worked at Paul Weiss, Cindy Chang, wrote in a LinkedIn comment that was later deleted. 

Paul Weiss may be dealt a setback in recruiting young lawyers because of its apparent retreat from diversity commitments that have spread through law firms in recent years, and are now under attack from Trump, some lawyers said.

This is a generation that expects to see diversity and inclusion in the workplace, said Nikia Gray, executive director of the National Association for Law Placement.

Some lawyers aligned with Trump faced professional discipline over claims that they violated legal ethics rules in challenging Democrat Joe Bidens 2020 presidential election win over Trump.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who later was an attorney for Trump, was disbarred in New York and in the District of Columbia over baseless claims he made alleging the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Lawyers for Civil Rights, a legal advocacy group suing the administration over deportations, called the sanctions threat hypocritical saying Trump and his allies have repeatedly thumbed their noses at the rule of law.