Trump reportedly directed DOJ to reverse course on case against defiant law firms
After Donald Trump launched an unprecedented attack on leading law firms last year, many of the president’s targets surrendered, fearing retribution from the White House. But four companies resisted, challenging Trump’s orders in court and went undefeated.
The victories for the four (Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, Perkins Coie and Susman Godfrey) looked even better with the Trump Justice Department ruling last week. announced that he plans to throw in the towel: Justice Department lawyers say they will drop their defense of the president’s executive orders rather than appeal their earlier defeat.
A day later, federal prosecutors changed their minds. Completed a 180 degree turn A.He informed the four companies that they would ultimately continue to appeal.
It seemed obvious from a distance that someone of high influence had intervened, and in his opinion The Wall Street Journal’s latest reportthis person is exactly who most observers assume.
The Justice Department’s surprise reversal last week in defending the White House’s sanctions against law firms followed an angry outburst from President Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.
After The Wall Street Journal reported on March 2 that the department was withdrawing its defense of executive orders setting penalties against certain law firms, Trump told advisers to stop immediately, sources said.
The Journal’s report has not been independently verified by MS NOW, but the White House has made no effort to deny its accuracy. On the contrary, press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the Justice Department changed course “at the direction of the president.”
The same report states that Trump specifically told White House officials that he had not signed the Justice Department’s decision and instructed his team to “change course”, which they did immediately.
This move opens the door for the administration to prolong the losing legal battle just to make the president feel better – several judges from across the ideological spectrum They’ve already ruled against the White House in that case, concluding that the move was clearly illegal — though Trump apparently doesn’t care.
As last week drew to a close, the hyper-politicized Justice Department completed a strikingly different court filing in the case that, among other things, lashed out at the federal judiciary and accused the justices of “encroaching” on the president’s powers. The New York Times announced He added that the language in the filing was “blistering”: “The tone and language of the brief were striking, as Justice Department attorneys launched an argument against federal appeals court judges by attacking those judges’ lower court colleagues.”
In other words, this was a court filing that reflected the rhetoric Trump likes to use and hear echoed by those around him.
Of course, none of these developments were and are not surprising. Over the last 14 months or so, it has become apparent that the Justice Department has become an extension of the West Wing, and the dismissal of cases against challenger law firms reinforces this infallible pattern.
But the revelations add new weight to the broader indictment of Trump’s control of federal law enforcement.
A few weeks ago, the Chief Justice A giant banner with the president’s face was unveiled on the front. This move eliminated an allegation that no one took seriously anyway. Like Wall Street Journal summary In November, this was a Ministry of Justice with a president, not the attorney general“determines the decisions.”
This post updates our relevant previous coverage.
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