In Another Step Towards Autocracy, Trump Targets Law Firms

Cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump is systematically attempting to remove any obstacle to his autocratic rule. Congress is prostrating itself at his feet. He requires very little from the legislative branch in any case. A spending bill here or there and maybe an occasional debt limit increase. Otherwise, it is an irrelevant sideshow. Both traditional media and new media have largely welcomed their new Trumpian overlords. The Washington Post, which once took down a president, is now owned by a man whose primary goal seems to be to suck up to Trump, or perhaps test just how scantily his girlfriend can dress for state events. The courts have been a bit of a problem for Trump, but he is prone to ignoring rulings that he doesn't like and has expectations that the Supreme Court, dominated by conservatives including three justices who are his nominees, will eventually do his bidding. Still, the courts remain the best avenue for confronting and even stopping Trump. However, to go to court, you need an attorney. So, Trump seems to have come up with a solution for that. He is attacking the lawyers. Trump may well be hoping to intimidate law firms to the extent that they are unwilling to take the risk of challenging him.

On March 6, Trump issued an unprecedented executive order attacking the Perkins Coie law firm. The EO suspended any security clearances held by Perkins Coie attorneys, cut government contracts with the firm, initiated a civil rights investigation of the firm, prohibited the hiring of any Perkins Coie employee by the federal government, and prevented Perkins Coie employees from entering government buildings. Trump is incensed with Perkins Coie due to its representation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and its involvement with Fusion GPS (which produced the infamous "dossier" about Trump). The EO also cites the firm's diversity, equity, and inclusion program as justification for the punitive measures. The EO would effectively prevent Perkins Coie from representing any clients doing business with the government and punish the firm's entire staff, whether or not they had been involved with Clinton. Perkins Coie's representatives have claimed that the EO would put the firm out of business.

The principle that everyone deserves legal representation and that attorneys should not be punished due to the clients they represent has long been established in the United States. Indeed, one of America's founding fathers and the second president of the United States, John Adams, famously represented British soldiers charged with murder in the Boston Massacre. Trump's actions, on the face of it, appeared to be legally untenable, morally dubious, and a direct attack on one of the foundations of the American legal system. Perkins Coie quickly hired the law firm of Williams & Connolly to provide representation in legal challenges to the EO and went to court.

In court, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell quickly issued a temporary restraining order blocking the EO from being put into effect. Howell compared Trump's action to that of the Queen of Hearts in "Alice in Wonderland," saying, "Off with their heads!" to annoying subjects. Howell was adamant that "this cannot be the reality we are living under." The judge also noted that "The order casts a chilling harm of blizzard proportions across the legal profession." The government was represented by the number 3 official in the Department of Justice, Chad Mizelle. Among other things, Mizelle argued that Trump "is authorized under the Constitution to find certain individuals and certain companies are not trustworthy with the nation’s secrets." This is, of course, deeply ironic given that Trump famously stored top-secret documents in his bathroom at Mar-a-Lago.

The EO punishing Perkins Coie was not Trump's first retaliatory action against a law firm. In a February 25th EO, Trump suspended the security clearances of all employees of Covington & Burling LLP, the firm that had assisted Special Counsel Jack Smith while he was Special Counsel. Following Howell's ruling with regard to Perkins Coie, Trump issued another EO on March 14 instituting very similar measures against the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Trump targeted the firm because its attorneys had previously been involved in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian collusion with Trump's presidential campaign and worked with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The firm was also sanctioned due to the firm's DEI program. In a speech at the Justice Department which itself violated several traditional norms, Trump singled out by name Marc Elias, who is an elections attorney representing the Democratic Party. Trump claimed that Elias "tried to turn America into a corrupt Communist and third-world country." In fact, Elias probably earned Trump's ire by successfully winning numerous legal confrontations with Republicans over election law.

Trump is waging a two-pronged battle against his political enemies. On the one hand, using the Justice Department as his personal law firm to take legal action against those he seeks to punish, and on the other, using executive orders to punish law firms that are likely to represent those targets. Even law firms not directly sanctioned by Trump's EOs may be reluctant to put bullseyes on themselves by representing Trump's enemies. Trump is clearly attempting to deprive his political enemies of legal representation. This should be seen as the obvious authoritarian effort that it is. The legal system may well be the last defense against Trump's autocratic intentions. If Trump successfully defangs the legal profession, there will be no peaceful avenues left to those who oppose him.