DOJ reverses on ending fight over Trump orders targeting law firms

The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to let it renew its defense of President Trump’s executive orders targeting several of the nation’s top law firms — a stunning reversal just a day after the government deserted the appeals.  

In a court filing Tuesday, DOJ asked to withdraw its motion to dismiss appeals of four rulings by federal judges that rebuffed the orders aimed at law firms Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey. 

The request is opposed by the law firms, who said jointly that all parties had agreed to the government’s voluntary dismissal.

“Under no circumstances should the government’s unexplained about-face provide a basis for an extension of its brief,” they said, according to the government’s filing.  

The government noted that the court had not yet granted its motion to dismiss, meaning it’s the government’s prerogative to continue pursuing its appeal “regardless” of the law firms’ position.

The Hill requested comment from the law firms and their legal teams. The Justice Department declined to comment.  

Trump’s orders limited the law firms’ government contracts, in addition to employees’ security clearances and their access to government buildings.  

The four firms claimed the directives were retribution for representing Trump’s political adversaries, as each had ties to opponents of the president.   

Perkins Coie advised Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign and worked with an opposition research firm tied to the discredited Steele dossier, while WilmerHale employed former special counsel Robert Mueller before and after his stint investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. 

Jenner & Block previously employed Andrew Weissmann, a vocal Trump critic and legal pundit who worked on Mueller’s probe, and Susman Godfrey helped Dominion Voting Systems secure a multimillion-dollar settlement against Fox News after the 2020 election.  

On Monday, the firms claimed victory. A WilmerHale spokesperson called the government’s decision to dismiss its appeal “clearly the right one,” and Jenner & Block said in a statement that the request to withdraw made permanent the rulings that found Trump’s executive orders unconstitutional. 

Federal judges uniformly struck down the executive orders as unlawful, ripping the president’s efforts as designed to chill legal representation. 

One of the judges, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, said Trump’s order against Perkins Coie “draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase: ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’”  

Not all law firms fought back. At least nine firms agreed to provide tens of millions of dollars in pro bono work to the Trump administration to avoid executive orders — even as some of the firms never had one issued against them.  

The law firm Paul, Weiss was the first to strike a deal, agreeing to $40 million in free legal services supporting administration initiatives. The firm Skadden followed, agreeing to provide at least $100 million in pro bono legal services.  

Updated 1:30 p.m. EST

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