Trump punishing law firms that represent his “political enemies” demands far more attention!
Trump is following the Nixon playbook
Donald Trump has just taken Richard Nixon’s playbook of weaponizing government “to screw our political enemies” to a new, deeply alarming place. He is now targeting law firms that represent his political enemies. We have never seen this before—which is why well-known national security lawyer Mark Zaid called this, “the most un-American thing I’ve ever heard.” Yet it’s still barely getting the coverage demanded.
This all began two weeks ago when Trump did the unheard of by using the power of the federal government to retaliate against the well-known Washington. D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling that “employs high-profile Democratic lawyers who worked in the Obama and Biden administrations.” Trump announced that he would strip security clearances from lawyers in that firm—which would mean that these lawyers could not work on legal cases involving national security, review classified documents that are part of a case or even have access to certain government buildings.
As legal experts note, lawyers who work in this area and have their clearance pulled will see a “substantial impact on their business.” That is Trump’s very goal.
What did the lawyers at Covington & Burling do to merit this punishment? Did they take classified documents home and store in their bathroom like Trump? Were they charged with over 30 counts of violating the Espionage Act like Trump was?
Nope, the law firm simply provided free legal advice to former Special Counsel Jack Smith because he was concerned that Trump might criminally prosecute him. That led Trump to issue an order on Feb. 25 revoking security clearance of any lawyer “who assisted former Special Counsel Jack Smith” by providing these legal services.
As the NY Times rightly reported at the time, this was “a breathtaking escalation of Mr. Trump’s effort to employ the vast powers of the presidency” against not just his announced “political enemies” like Smith but also extending that to law firms who represent those “enemies.”
However, given Trump did not face much of a backlash for this action, on Thursday he went alarmingly much further in weaponizing government to punish Democratic linked law firms who represent people Trump hates. Trump signed an order sanctioning the well-known law firm of Perkins Coie—which “regularly represents Democratic and liberal groups.”
This time Trump not only stripped security clearances for lawyers at the firm—which will impact their ability to represent certain clients—but also orders government agencies to cancel any government contracts with the firm and even ban lawyers from entering federal government buildings.
More disturbingly, Trump ordered his Attorney General and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate the law firm for embracing diversity programs that resulted in hiring as Trump put it “individuals of preferred races.” This investigation will likely cost the firm a great deal of money to hire outside counsel and perhaps lead to fines.
What did the law firm Perkins Coie do to merit this punishment? Simple, during the 2016 campaign they represented Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee as well as contracted with the research firm that drafted what came known as the “Steele dossier.” That dossier detailed Trump’s interactions with Vladimir Putin’s government and other Russian actors. (The two main lawyers who were involved with the dossier, Marc Elias and Michael Sussmann, have long since left the firm.)
Trump’s executive order sought to justify this clearly political action by falsely accusing the law firm of “undermining democratic elections, the integrity of our courts and honest law enforcement.” In reality, the law firm’s “crime” was that they represented Trump’s “political enemies.”
In addition, the Perkins law firm is also suing the Trump administration in two cases--one focused on immigration and another representing transgender service members who are challenging the Trump administration’s ban on joining the military. While not mentioned in the order by Trump, this is obviously another reason Trump is gleefully targeting these firm. saying Thursday about the order, “This is an absolute honor to sign.”
Trump is sending a message that if a lawyer or law firm represents anyone Trump views as an enemy, he will use the vast powers of the federal government to punish you. The goal being, of course, to deter other firms from representing anyone who dares defy Trump. As the NY Times noted this sweeping new order “could cast a chilling effect over the entire legal profession.”
That is why the president of the American Bar Association, William R. Bay, slammed Trump’s targeting of these law firms, writing, “Lawyers must be free to represent clients and perform their ethical duty without fear of retribution.” He added, “We reject the notion that the government can punish lawyers who represent certain clients or punish judges who rule certain ways. We cannot accept government actions that seek to tip the scales of justice in this manner.”
Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer, was even more blunt in what Trump’s goals were: “By taking these actions against these major law firms, it is effectively sending a message to all the lawyers that you best not challenge this administration, or you, your lawyers and your clients will suffer.” He added, “It is the most un-American thing I’ve ever heard.”
What Trump is doing comes right from Nixon’s playbook of weaponizing the government to target any who dare oppose the administration. In fact, an August 1971 memo by Nixon’s then White House Counsel John Dean floated a plan to punish the administration’s “political enemies.” As Dean wrote, “This memorandum addresses the matter of how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration.” Dean then added the infamous line, “Stated a bit more bluntly—how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.”
From there, Dean gave examples of how the Nixon administration should punish these people: we should “determine what sorts of dealings these individuals have with the federal government and how we can best screw them (e.g., grant availability, federal contracts, litigation, prosecution, etc.).”
That is exactly what we are seeing from Trump. But Trump has taken it further. Never before have law firms been targeted by the federal government for solely representing who the president views as “political enemies.” And unless there is an outcry in the media and by Democratic leaders, Trump will 100% go even further in weaponizing the federal government against not only those he views as enemies—but also anyone who dares helps or supports them.
In an effort to further amplify Trump’s dangerous abuse of power I made the below video highlighting points from this article. I hope you will share this article and/or video so more people hear about this. We need to build a backlash!
I heard about this last night and it absolutely insane! It’s also complete BS…meant to cause confusion and fear! Attorneys should hopefully be moving on like business as usual!
We have a rogue regime in the executive branch. I am not a lawyer, but it seems this would be eligible for some sort of legal relief. But, the larger issue is that we have a Constitution which was neutralized in just 7 weeks... If we survive it, we need a Constitution with real teeth in it and a mechanism for removing an entire regime.