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Dem legislators take on law firms' caving to trump's extortion (w/ poll) [1]
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Date: 2025-04-26
When I first heard about big law firms, including five of the world’s largest firms, acceding to trump’s demands for tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of pro bono legal services totaling almost a billion dollars in order to keep their security clearances, I wondered why tf they were caving to extortion demands instead of fighting them (I didn’t realize that trump was threatening their clients’ government contracts as well*).
But their capitulation may have opened them up to criminal and civil liability, and now, sixteen Dem legislators sent letters to nine law firms asking them to disavow their “deals” with trump and to answer questions about their legality. according to the ABA Journal’s “Did 9 firms making deals with Trump violate bribery, anti-fraud laws? Democratic letters seek answers” (these letters are additional to the letters sent by Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Jamie Raskin, which also requested information about the deals):
The nine firms getting the letters are Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Milbank; Willkie Farr & Gallagher; Kirkland & Ellis; A&O Shearman; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Latham & Watkins; and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. […] According to the letters, continued performance under the agreements may be unenforceable under contracts law, would have negative effects on the legal system, could expose the firms to civil and criminal liability, and creates potential ethics violations with respect to conflicts of interest and limits on future law practice. Agreements of this kind “signal acquiescence to an abuse of federal power, raising serious questions about how or whether your firm would represent clients or take on matters that might be seen as antagonistic to President Trump or his agenda,” the letters said.
The piece notes that the legislators who are leading the effort, Rep. Dave Min (CA-47) and Rep. April McClain Delaney (MD-6), are both lawyers so they’re familiar with laws pertaining to law firms. More about the potential liabilities from a press release on Rep. Min’s website:
This package of letters requests details on the formation, legality, and enforceability of these agreements made with the Trump administration. These letters request a detailed explanation about whether these agreements pass legal muster or potentially open these firms up to liability under federal and state statutes, including: violating federal bribery law, which prohibits anyone, under threat of both criminal and civil liability, from corruptly offering and promising something of value to public officials with the intent to influence their official acts. (18 U.S.C. § 201(b)(1) );
); aiding and abetting violations of the federal Hobbs Act, which prohibits obstruction, delay, or affecting commerce by extortion under color of official right (18 U.S.C.§ 1951);
violating federal anti-fraud “honest services” statutes, which prohibit schemes to defraud the public of the honest services of public officials using mail and wire communications (18 U.S.C. §§ 1341/1343, 1346, 1349 );
); violating federal racketeering law, which prohibits the participation in an enterprise engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity ( 18 U.S.C. § 1962);
violating state laws, such as New York Penal Law § 200.03, which prohibits offering or agreeing to confer benefits valued over $5,000 on a public servant with the understanding that such public servant’s actions will be influenced thereby.
You can read the letters here — all nine letters are in a single file — but ABC has summarized them here. Note that despite using the terms “bribery,” “fraud,” and “racketeering,” the tone is respectful and inquiring, not accusatory or otherwise confrontational:
"By entering into an agreement that appears to be in response to the threat of illegal economic coercion against your firm from the Trump administration, your firm is not simply agreeing to provide certain pro bono services or end certain personnel hiring and retention practices," the lawmakers caution in their letter. "Agreements of this kind also signal acquiescence to an abuse of federal power, raising serious questions about how or whether your firm would represent clients or take on matters that might be seen as antagonistic to President Trump or his agenda." […] "We do not wish to prematurely judge or assess guilt," the letter states. "Our aim however, is to gather comprehensive information with respect to the formation and implementation of the…agreement and resulting legal and ethical quandaries." The letters request details from each firm on its "motivations for entering into this agreement, how was an agreement reached, and what specific terms or promises were made." The lawmakers also inquire whether the deals comply with state bar ethics requirements, contending that the agreements may raise issues with state bar professional codes of conduct rules for lawyers. "We are sympathetic to the circumstances in which your firm finds itself, with the Administration using coercive and illegal measures to target certain law firms and threaten their ability to represent and retain their clients," the letter states, requesting a response from each firm by May 8.
Hopefully, the letters will embolden the law firms to stand up to trump!
And I’m glad to see Congressional Dems taking this on!
* I hadn’t realized this until I read the ABA Journal piece:
Firms making the deals pledged to devote millions of dollars in pro bono hours to issues supported by the firms and Trump. Their agreements allowed them to avoid executive orders that, among other things, call for the suspension of lawyers’ security clearances and imperil their clients’ government contracts.
The nerve of that guy…
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