The president has gotten several top law firms to bend the knee. And this week, he floated the possibility of using them for his destructive trade war.
Several major U.S. law firms have bent the knee to President Donald Trump's illiberal regime in recent weeks, reportedly committing millions of dollars' worth of free legal services to help Trump's administration pursue any number of their political goals.
On Friday, Trump announced that five more law firms made deals with his administration in the face of potential punitive action: Kirkland & Ellis; Latham & Watkins; A&O Shearman; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.
In social media posts, Trump claimed the firms have agreed to provide free legal work for things like fighting antisemitism, assisting law enforcement and "ensuring fairness in our justice system." It's a rather vague list that seems to leave a lot of room for interpretation. Trump, for example, has used dubious claims of antisemitism to wield authoritarian power over college campuses, has routinely lobbed baseless allegations of voter fraud against liberals, and has vowed to address what he called a "definite anti-white feeling" in the country. So, given the descriptions of the work he has secured from these law firms, there's certainly potential for him to ask them to assist with his antidemocratic ambitions for the executive branch.
The Guardian reported Friday that, in all, this announcement means Trump "has secured a total of $940 million in pro bono work from some of the most powerful law firms in the U.S."
As my colleague Steve Benen noted recently, Trump has said the law firms he's targeted did "nothing wrong," essentially acknowledging that his efforts were about forcing them into submission more than anything else. And he's clearly more than happy to have them at his disposal to pursue all sorts of priorities. Trump has said he wants to use these law firms to aid his destructive trade war, remarking several times this week that the law firms could be used to help his administration with trade negotiations.
As CBS News reported:
I don't imagine the firms Trump has essentially conquered are eager to spend their resources fighting Trump's trade war, which is widely unpopular and has been denounced by economists for being rooted in shoddy logic. But this is the natural outcome of these law firms acquiescing to Trump.
I agree with former Attorney General Eric Holder, who in a recent interview with Rachel Maddow denounced these law firms as cowardly and rebuked many of them for refusing to stand alongside other law firms that are fighting the Trump administration's authoritarian attacks on the legal profession.
These firms have essentially placed themselves at the whim of a wannabe king, no matter how petty, economically destructive or antithetical to democracy his ideas may be.