By Katelyn Polantz, CNN
(CNN) — The Trump administration has decided to drop its prolonged court fights against four law firms with ties to Democrats, after it had sought and failed to cut out the firms’ access to the federal government as part of an apparent retribution campaign by President Donald Trump.
Despite Trump’s dislike for certain lawyers who had opposed him at the firms and his attempts to use executive orders against them, the firms – Perkins Coie, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey – had each been protected by federal judges in Washington, DC, who ruled against the administration last year.
Each of the firms, Trump said, had employed lawyers who had investigated or opposed him personally. He attempted to use the powers of the presidency to deprive the firms’ lawyers of access to federal buildings, secured classified information and meetings with federal agencies – all mainstays of Washington-based legal work.
The firms were notified by the administration this weekend that it was dropping its appeals, according to a source familiar with the decision. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
The administration was appealing its court losses and had been delaying proceedings from moving forward at the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Filings were due beginning later this week.
The cases had been some of the most shocking attempts at retribution by Trump for his own past legal issues, with Trump aiming at large and well-known firms with prominent lawyers who had ties to Democratic administrations and the party.
Other firms under threat of similar Trump executive orders cut deals with the administration and changed their approach, especially by shifting the political leanings in the pro bono work they were willing to do, from liberal causes to more conservative ones.
Though the executive orders didn’t survive in court, they have widely curtailed large American law firms’ willingness to oppose the administration and represent progressive causes publicly.
Top Justice Department lawyers from the Biden and Obama administrations, for instance, have also found more difficulty in landing or staying at large law firms, as would be typical after prior administration changeovers in Washington, with some starting their own small white collar firms instead.
The-CNN-Wire
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