After Donald Trump launched an unprecedented offensive against high-profile law firms last year, most of the president’s targets caved out of fear that the White House would be punished. However, four companies fought back, challenging Trump’s order in court and remaining undefeated.
Last week, when the Trump Justice Department announced plans to throw in the towel, a victory for four law firms — Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, Perkins Coie and Susman Godfrey — looked even better: Justice Department lawyers said they would not appeal the previous defeat and would instead drop their defense of the president’s executive order.
A day later, federal prosecutors changed their minds, completing a U-turnThe four companies were notified that they would ultimately continue to appeal.
From a distance, it seemed clear that someone with high influence was involved, and according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, that person was exactly who most observers believed.
The Justice Department unexpectedly reversed course last week to defend White House sanctions on law firms following an outburst of anger from President Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.
After The Wall Street Journal reported on March 2 that the Justice Department was dropping its defense of an executive order outlining penalties for specific law firms, Trump told advisers to stop immediately, people familiar with the matter said.
The Wall Street Journal report has not been independently confirmed by MS NOW, but the White House has not denied its accuracy. Instead, press secretary Carolyn Leavitt confirmed that the Justice Department changed course “at the direction of the president.”
The same report adds that Trump specifically told White House officials that he did not sign off on the Justice Department’s decision and directed his team to “change course,” which they quickly did.
The move opens the door for the administration to prolong a failed legal battle just to make the president feel better — judges from across the ideological spectrum have already ruled against the White House in the case, concluding that the move was clearly illegal — though Trump apparently doesn’t care too much.
At the end of last week, the highly politicized Justice Department completed a very different court filing in the case, which included a swipe at the federal judiciary and accused the judges of “encroaching” on the president’s powers. The New York Times described the language in the document as “fierce,” adding, “The tone and language of the brief, in which Justice Department attorneys argue against a federal appeals court judge by attacking his lower-court colleagues, are striking.”
In other words, it’s a court document that echoes the kind of rhetoric Trump loves to use — and loves to hear echoed by those around him.
To be sure, none of these developments are particularly surprising. Over the past 14 months or so, the Justice Department has clearly become an extension of the West Wing, and the reversal of cases against provocative law firms reinforces that clear pattern.
But the revelations add new weight to broader accusations that Trump controls federal law enforcement.
A few weeks ago, the chief justice unfurled a huge banner with the president’s face emblazoned on the front. The move removes a pretense that no one took seriously anyway. As the Wall Street Journal concluded last November, this is a Justice Department where the president, not the attorney general, “calls the shots.”
This article updates our previous coverage.
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