A few weeks ago, Donald Trump and his White House team took an unprecedented step, punishing a prominent private law firm, Covington & Burling LLP, because it assisted with former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations. The New York Times described the move as “a breathtaking escalation.”
A week later, the Republican president did it again, punishing Perkins Coie, a large international law firm with some prominent Democratic clients.
The tactics did not go unnoticed. Indeed, when Perkins Coie filed suit, challenging the legality of Trump’s order, U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell temporarily blocked the president’s policy, saying in reference to the executive order, “It sends little chills down my spine.” The judge added, “I am sure that many in the profession are watching in horror at what Perkins Coie is going through.”
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a constitutional scholar, had a similar reaction, describing the White House’s offensive as “dangerous as hell.”
The president didn’t appear to care. In fact, in an interview that was aired early last week, the Republican told Fox News that there were other law firms that he also intended to target. Evidently, he was serious. The New York Times reported:
President Trump on Friday opened a third attack against a private law firm, restricting the business activities of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison just days after a federal judge ruled such measures appeared to violate the Constitution.
According to the order, the move was motivated partly because the firm employs Mark Pomerantz, who assembled evidence against Trump years ago while working at the Manhattan district attorney’s office, and partly because a partner at the firm worked on a case involving a Jan. 6 rioter.
A Politico report noted, “Top law firms are debating whether to make a public show of support for three major firms that have come under attack by the Trump administration. … But they’re racked by private worries they’d be targeted, too.”
In other words, the president is already retaliating against some of the largest law firms in Washington, D.C. Other firms could step up and denounce such tactics, but they know they’d likely end up soon after on the West Wing’s retaliation list. But while it’s very easy to believe this campaign reflects Trump’s larger drive to turn his second term into an extended revenge tour, there’s another element to this that’s worth keeping in mind. Right now, with Congress’ Republican majorities in the House and Senate acting like presidential employees, the most meaningful barrier between Trump and his goals is the judiciary — an institution where he and his policies have struggled quite a bit over the last several weeks. With this in mind, the rationale behind the offensive against law firms becomes even more obvious: The White House likely wants to stop losing in the courts, and the surest way to prevent those defeats is to discourage nervous law firms from taking cases that Trump won’t like.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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