President Trump broadened his campaign of retaliation against lawyers he dislikes with a new memorandum that threatens to use government power to punish any law firms that, in his view, unfairly challenge his administration.
The memorandum directs the heads of the Justice and Homeland Security Departments to “seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable and vexatious litigation against the United States” or in matters that come before federal agencies.
Mr. Trump issued the order late Friday night, after a tumultuous week for the American legal community in which one of the country’s premier firms, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, struck a deal with the White House to spare the company from a punitive decree issued by Mr. Trump the previous week.
Vanita Gupta, who as a civil rights lawyer and a former Justice Department official has both sued the government and defended it in court, said Mr. Trump’s memo “attacks the very foundations of our legal system by threatening and intimidating litigants who aim to hold our government accountable to the law and the Constitution.”
The president has long complained that Democratic-leaning lawyers and law firms have pursued what he calls “lawfare” in the form of investigations and lawsuits against him and his allies that he claims are motivated by politics. Since being sworn into office he has targeted three firms, but the new memo seems to threaten similar punishment for any lawyer or firm who raises his ire.
Mr. Trump’s memorandum argues the steps are necessary to ensure “accountability” in the legal profession.
After Mr. Trump issued an order suspending security clearances for Paul Weiss lawyers, and sharply limiting their employees from entering government buildings or getting government jobs, the firm agreed to a series of commitments to get the president to cancel the order.
As part of the deal, the firm said it would provide $40 million in legal services to causes Mr. Trump has championed, including his task force to combat antisemitism.
Perkins Coie, another firm targeted by Mr. Trump, chose a different tack — suing him in federal court and getting a temporary restraining order against the president.
Trump’s attacks on law firms, and Paul Weiss’s decision to cut a deal rather than fight it out in court, have sent shock waves through the legal community. The sweeping nature of the president’s latest demand comes as he has also stepped up his public attacks on judges and the very notion that the courts can tell him what to do or not do.
The executive branch “should neither fear nor punish those who challenge it and should not be the arbiter of what is frivolous — there are protections in place to address that,” Ms. Gupta said. “This moment calls for courage and collective action, not capitulation, among lawyers and the legal profession.”
It also comes amid a showdown between a federal judge in Washington and the administration over the president’s invocation a week ago of the Alien Enemies Act, which he used to immediately send more than 100 Venezuelan migrants he said were gang members to a large prison complex in El Salvador.
Civil rights activists say the deportations violated the law, and that the administration’s refusal to give clear answers on its conduct flouts the very premise of the U.S. court system.
One law firm that is suing the administration over its policies said it would not back down in the face of threats from the White House.
The leaders of Keker, Van Nest & Peters, a San Francisco firm that has sued over the Trump administration over its immigration raids, called Mr. Trump’s latest memorandum “inexcusable and despicable.”
“Our liberties depend on lawyers’ willingness to represent unpopular people and causes, including in matters adverse to the federal government,” the firm said in a statement. “Our profession owes every client zealous legal representation without fear of retribution, regardless of their political affiliation or ability to pay.”
The firm also encouraged other lawyers to join a nationwide effort to submit a “friend of the court” brief in the Perkins Coie lawsuit against Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump’s Friday night memo, titled “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court,” complains that lawyers have long engaged in unethical conduct in opposing him, or opposing deportations. The memo also suggests that the Trump administration will make disciplinary referrals against lawyers who pursue cases without merit “particularly in cases that implicate national security, homeland security, public safety, or election integrity.”
Mr. Trump also used the announcement to attack one particular lawyer by name, Marc Elias.
Mr. Elias previously worked at Perkins Coie, and has long represented Democrats. Mr. Trump blames Mr. Elias, among others, for a dossier of unsubstantiated allegations about his links to Russia that was investigated by the F.B.I. in 2016 and 2017.
“President Trump’s goal is clear. He wants lawyers and law firms to capitulate and cower until there is no one left to oppose his administration in court,” Mr. Elias said in a written statement. He added, “There will be no negotiation with this White House about the clients we represent or the lawsuits we bring on their behalf.”
