Trump’s war with anyone perceived as political opponents isn’t just tied to journalists and environmentalists. He’s also going after law firms as well.
The great crackdown on Trump’s political opponents is continuing in America. We’ve already extensively covered Trump’s war on journalists daring to cover criticism or material that doesn’t glorified the fascist dictator. In addition, we covered Trumps efforts to financially ruin non-profits trying to fight climate change. Moreover, we also offered extensive coverage of Trump stabbing international allies in the back with punishing tariffs. Over top of that, we covered the push to weaponize government organizations to crack down on online criticisms as well.
Of course, Trump himself has recently renewed his call to crack down on political opponents, using government law enforcement agencies to carry out investigations and punish those who commit the criminal act of expressing thought crimes against the king of America. It’s disturbing enough witnessing the above entities being targeted, but that isn’t even an exhaustive list of the types of people and organizations Trump is going after. In addition to that, the Trump administration is also targeting law firms for the crime of representing Trump’s political opponents. Obviously, it’s not a crime to represent clients the president doesn’t like, but this is Trump’s America where the rule of law is little more than a tool for Trump to use or ignore as he sees fit.
Techdirt has been covering these disturbing developments in recent days. Last week, they covered an executive order being used to go after well known law firm, Perkins Coie. From TechDirt:
When a president uses executive power to not just blacklist but effectively destroy a major law firm, solely for representing political opponents, it means he’s given up any pretense that he’s not an authoritarian hellbent on destroying anyone who opposes him through any means necessary. Donald Trump’s executive order targeting Perkins Coie isn’t just an attack on one firm — it’s a blueprint for how authoritarian leaders can grossly abuse government power to chill speech and discourage legal challenges to a vast campaign of abuses of their authority.
There are so many things happening with the current ruling junta that it’s impossible to cover all the craziness. But some moments stand out as so far outside the normal realm of things that they need to be described plainly. Donald Trump’s executive order about the law firm Perkins Coie is one of those things. Even if you are a true believer in the MAGA movement, this is one of those things that should cause you to question how much Trump is focused on punishing his perceived enemies, rather than leading the country.
Perkins Coie represents a who’s who of major tech (and other) companies, handles crucial cybersecurity work requiring security clearances, and yes, sometimes represents Democratic politicians and causes. That last bit — a small fraction of their overall practice — is apparently enough for Trump to try to destroy them. The firm’s thousand-plus lawyers handle everything from patent litigation to privacy compliance to national security matters. But none of that matters to an administration focused solely on punishing perceived enemies.
The order’s text reads like a Trump campaign speech. Rather than even attempting to articulate a legitimate government purpose, it launches directly into partisan grievances:
The dishonest and dangerous activity of the law firm Perkins Coie LLP (“Perkins Coie”) has affected this country for decades. Notably, in 2016 while representing failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Perkins Coie hired Fusion GPS, which then manufactured a false “dossier” designed to steal an election. This egregious activity is part of a pattern. Perkins Coie has worked with activist donors including George Soros to judicially overturn popular, necessary, and democratically enacted election laws, including those requiring voter identification.
This is a president using the power of his office to punish lawyers for representing clients he doesn’t like. If that doesn’t terrify you, imagine how this precedent could be used against any law firm that helps fight government overreach. Imagine what it means for firms considering whether to help challenge unconstitutional surveillance programs, or defend whistleblowers, or protect platforms’ rights to moderate content as they see fit.
The order doesn’t just attack Perkins Coie for representing Democrats — it explicitly attacks them for challenging laws in court. Think about that: the White House is using executive power to punish lawyers for filing legitimate court challenges to potentially unconstitutional laws. That’s not just an attack on free speech — it’s an attack on the very concept of constitutional checks and balances.
The order’s punitive measures are carefully crafted to effectively destroy the firm’s ability to operate. First, it effectively strips security clearances from everyone at Perkins Coie — a move that doesn’t just impact their political work, but devastates their ability to handle cybersecurity matters, represent defense contractors, or work on sensitive tech policy issues. This isn’t collateral damage — it’s a deliberate attempt to cut off the firm’s ability to represent clients in some of their core practice areas.
Even more dangerous is the contractor ban. Any company with a federal contract — which includes most major tech companies and countless smaller ones — must now “disclose any business they do with Perkins Coie.” This creates an impossible choice for these companies: either cut ties with a trusted legal advisor or risk their government contracts. It’s a move straight out of an authoritarian playbook — using government contracts as leverage to force private companies to blacklist political enemies.
More recently, it has become clear that Perkins Coie isn’t the only law firm that Trump is going after. Another well known law firm is also in Trump’s crosshairs. That law firm is Paul Weiss. From TechDirt:
It took exactly three days for Trump to prove that Judge Beryl Howell’s “Alice in Wonderland” comparison wasn’t just apt, but prescient. After the judge blocked his executive order attempting to destroy Perkins Coie for representing his political opponents, Trump has now issued an almost identical order targeting another major law firm, Paul Weiss. Because when you’re living in Wonderland, why stop at just one “off with their heads”?
The executive order reads like a confession of unconstitutional retaliation, explicitly laying out two “crimes” that… are not crimes. Or even unethical or problematic things. It’s just doing regular law work that just so happened to target Donald Trump and his violent supporters.
First, a Paul Weiss partner dared to represent the DC Attorney General in litigation over January 6th:
In 2021, a Paul Weiss partner and former leading prosecutor in the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller brought a pro bono suit against individuals alleged to have participated in the events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, on behalf of the District of Columbia Attorney General.
And second — perhaps even more telling — the firm hired someone who tried to hold Trump accountable while serving as a prosecutor:
In 2022, Paul Weiss hired unethical attorney Mark Pomerantz, who had previously left Paul Weiss to join the Manhattan District Attorney’s office solely to manufacture a prosecution against me and who, according to his co-workers, unethically led witnesses in ways designed to implicate me. After being unable to convince even Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that a fraud case was feasible, Pomerantz engaged in a media campaign to gin up support for this unwarranted prosecution.
That’s it. That’s the justification for trying to destroy one of America’s premier law firms — they represented clients Trump didn’t like and hired someone who investigated him. The nakedness of this retaliation should be terrifying. Trump isn’t even bothering with the usual pretense of national security or public interest — he’s essentially declaring that investigating or opposing him legally is grounds for destruction.
The executive order also mentions some nonsense about DEI, which is just Trump continuing to pretend that that shit matters to anyone, but also reinforces just how unconstitutional all of this is.
The mechanisms of destruction in this order are identical to those used against Perkins Coie — and just as constitutionally grotesque. First, it weaponizes federal contracts: any company doing business with the government (which includes most major tech companies and countless others) must now effectively choose between keeping Paul Weiss as counsel or keeping their government contracts. It’s economic assassination dressed up as executive action.
But the most chilling provision might be the one about federal buildings. As with the Perkins Coie order, the order allows the government to bar any Paul Weiss lawyer from entering any federal building if officials decide their presence would be “inconsistent with the interests of the United States.” Think about what that means: they could be blocked from entering federal courthouses to represent their clients. While the DOJ suggested that kind of result would be “unlikely” in the hearing over Perkins Coie, it didn’t deny that the order could be used that way.
This needs to be called out for what it is: a president is literally trying to physically prevent lawyers from doing their jobs because they represented the “wrong” clients or hired the “wrong” people.
The Trump regimes efforts to silence criticism is targeting every possible angle. When Trumps efforts to silence anyone who dares disagree with them, such an effort will invariably end up in the courts. Trump is wanting to ensure that those who are fighting against these unconstitutional attacks will never get adequate legal representation – if any at all – regardless of any level of affluence. It’s impossible to not say that this has a chilling effect on freedom of expression. Simply put, it puts a huge chilling effect on free speech.
Already, there is considerable concern that the US Supreme Court is packed with activist judges who want little more than to do Trump’s bidding. So, it raises the question of whether there is a fair legal process in place. To throw in efforts to ensure that defendants of those being persecuted by the Trump regime only adds a whole new layer of concern about how one-sided the judicial system is becoming in favour of Trump. It goes without saying that everyone suffers here.
