On second thought, Donald Trump’s Justice Department isn’t tired of losing.
One of the most infamous legal battles of Trump’s second term appeared to be drawing to a close on Monday when the Justice Department sought to withdraw an appeal of rulings blocking executive orders targeting law firms Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale and Susman Godfrey for retribution.
Then on Tuesday, attorneys from Trump’s Justice Department changed their minds, seeking to keep the appeal alive in the D.C. Circuit. The BigLaw firms involved in the litigation ripped the government’s “unexplained about-face.”
In an extended conversation, legal expert Andrew Weissmann and I unpacked the government’s flip-flop.
“If I were the Solicitor General of the United States, I’d be saying, ‘You know what?This is not the hill to die on,’” Weissmann said. “‘This is something that judges could be really upset with, and it makes us look terrible.’”
Federal judges uniformly found that Trump violated the First Amendment, Fifth Amendment and Sixth Amendment rights of firms by seeking to block their access to federal buildings, revoke their lawyers’ security clearances, and terminate their contracts because of their clients and their cases.
One of those firms, Jenner & Block, was punished explicitly because of its prior association with Weissmann, who was a member of Robert Mueller’s prosecutorial team. U.S. District Judge John Bates found that Trump’s executive order violated Weissmann’s First Amendment rights, along with the law firm’s right to due process and the public’s right to access counsel of their choice.
During our discussion, Weissmann and I explained why the litigation doesn’t have to succeed in order to serve Trump’s goal of intimidating law firms from opposing the government.
“Paul Weiss caved, and that gave a sort of permission structure to many, many, many law firms that also caved, predominantly big companies,” Weissmann said, noting that several entered into settlements adding up to hundreds of millions of dollars in pro bono services. “This was basically — many people thought, including me — equivalent to an extortion racket.”
Toward the end of our conversation, Weissmann and I discussed the upcoming release of his book “Liar’s Kingdom.” Find more information about the book and pre-orders here.
