'Complicit': Dems fire warning shot at law firms that caved to Trump

Democrats in Congress are putting the law firms that cut deals with President Donald Trump to give the administration free legal services on notice, reported The New Republic on Thursday: if Trump committed extortion to get those deals, you could end up with legal liability too.

Trump cut a number of these deals with "big law" firms like Paul Weiss and Skadden Arps that represented clients in anti-Trump cases before the president took office, right around the same time he either rescinded or decided not to issue executive orders barring these law firms from contracting with the federal government or accessing federal buildings. These deals generally involve committing tens to hundreds of millions in pro bono work for causes the administration approves of, eliminating diversity policies in the office, and committing to offer counsel to Trump-supporting clients.

Several other firms targeted by Trump have instead decided to sue to overturn the executive orders targeting them. Moreover, some reports indicate the firms that agreed to deals may be at odds with Trump over what specifically they agreed to do.

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"In a series of letters Thursday, 16 Democratic lawmakers warned the managing partners of several large law firms that the agreements they’d made with the Trump administration ... were unenforceable and potentially violated federal and state laws," said the report.

The letters accused Trump of using "coercive and illegal measures to target certain law firms and threaten their ability to represent and retain their clients", and further "alleged that Trump’s scheme to blackmail firms into abolishing their DEI practices and cough up millions in free work could potentially violate federal laws against bribery, defrauding the public, and even racketeering. The deals could also potentially violate the Hobbs Act, according to lawmakers, which 'prohibits obstruction, delay, or affecting commerce by extortion under color of official right.'"

Democratic lawmakers further sought clarification from the law firms on the details of what they had agreed to.

"For example, Paul Weiss, the first law firm to bow to Trump, had agreed to acknowledge that one of its attorneys, Mark Pomerantz, had committed wrongdoing, according to the White House. Trump had targeted Pomerantz for his efforts to build a case against the president when Pomerantz served at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office — not illegal in the slightest. The lawmakers asked Paul Weiss to explain specifically what alleged 'wrongdoing' Pomerantz had committed."

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent letters this week to five major law firms that they said are now “complicit in efforts to undermine the rule of law.”

All of this comes as Trump and his allies also seek to force rigid compliance and loyalty to their political agenda from lawyers working at the Justice Department, with the Secretary of Transportation reportedly sidelining lawyers who may have exposed their legal strategy in a dispute with New York City over congestion pricing.