New York Times: She Relishes Being Trump’s Nemesis. Now He Is Out for Revenge.

Letitia James, the New York attorney general, won a fraud judgment against President Trump’s business and has challenged his policies in court. Now she is a target of his Justice Department.

The New York attorney general was an hour into a Westchester County town hall, expounding on her view of her mission during President Trump’s second term — on democracy and the need to defend it, on courage and the need to display it — when a middle-age man stood up and told her she was going to prison for mortgage fraud.

The attorney general, Letitia James, did not visibly react. As members of her staff escorted the man from the room, she thanked him with a small smile, said the allegations were baseless and turned her attention to a less fired-up attendee who was taking the microphone.

The episode in Westchester last month neatly encapsulated the role Ms. James has staked out in recent years as one of Mr. Trump’s chief antagonists, and the risks of having done so. The audience member was referring to allegations that have become the subject of a criminal investigation by Mr. Trump’s Justice Department, whose leaders have rewarded the president’s allies and targeted his foes.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/nyregion/trump-james-ny-attorney-general-investigation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OE8.L-eD.tBVWyUMhH40K&smid=url-share

Salon: Trouble for law firms that bent to Trump orders: Clients say firms “don’t have a hard line”

Law firms like Paul Weiss that bent to the Trump administration’s demands are finding that big-name clients prefer to take their business elsewhere, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

McDonald’s and Oracle are among the growing list of clients choosing to part ways with the appeasing firms. General counsels have concerns about whether these law firms could be trusted to fight it out for them in the courtroom and in negotiations, the Journal reported, when they so easily bent to Trump’s demands.

Nobody likes a weasel!

https://www.salon.com/2025/06/02/trouble-for-law-firms-that-bent-to-orders-clients-say-firms-dont-have-a-hard-line

Alternet: Trump-capitulating law firms keep losing in a bad deal that is becoming worse by the day | Opinion

Trump Loses Again

In a 52-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates—a 2001 appointee of President George W. Bush—rejected the Justice Department’s effort to defend Trump’s executive order targeting Jenner & Block. Trump’s own words doomed it:

Like the others in the series, this order—which takes aim at the global law firm Jenner & Block—makes no bones about why it chose its target: It picked Jenner because of the causes Jenner champions, the clients Jenner represents, and a lawyer Jenner once employed. (Jenner & Block v. U.S. Department of Justice, et al. Civil Action No. 25-916 (JDB) p. 1)

The court left no doubt that Trump had violated the Constitution:

Going after law firms in this way is doubly violative of the Constitution. Most obviously, retaliating against firms for the views embodied in their legal work—and thereby seeking to muzzle them going forward—violates the First Amendment’s central command that government may not “use the power of the State to punish or suppress disfavored expression.” (Id.; citations omitted.)

Describing how Trump’s actions undermine democracy, Judge Bates previewed the fate awaiting similar orders:

This order, like the others, seeks to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the Executive Branch from the judicial check fundamental to the separation of powers. It thus violates the Constitution and the Court will enjoin its operation in full. (Id.; emphasis supplied.)

The firms that challenged Trump remain undefeated in the courtroom.

https://www.alternet.org/trump-law-firms-2672221371

CBS News: 4 partners leave Paul Weiss after firm cut deal with Trump

Four partners at Paul Weiss — including the high-profile Democratic attorney Karen Dunn — are departing the law firm, a spokesperson told CBS News, after Paul Weiss drew attention for striking a deal with President Trump to avoid targeting by the federal government.

The rest of the law firm threw $40M of pro bono legal work at the corrupt Trump regime so they could continue doing business as usual.

Kudos and applause for the 4 partner attorneys who had the courage to leave.


Meanwhile another law firm (Jenner & Block) had the integrity to fight back in court and win without lining King Donald’s pockets.


Daily Digest: Trump is spreading chaos through the law sector

President Trump’s targeted executive order against private law firms, several since his inauguration, are reshaping the law world by pushing big companies to cut deals or recoil.

President Trump targeted various law firms, stripping them of security clearances, federal contracts, and access to government buildings. Perkins Coie, Covington & Burling, WilmerHale, and Paul Weiss are examples.

All the targeted firms have had ties with or represented a Democrat or someone President Trump perceives as an enemy. WilmerHale, for example, once housed Robert Mueller.

https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/other/trump-is-spreading-chaos-through-the-law-sector/ss-AA1AY8l8

Mediaite: ‘Give Me a Break!’ Judge Shreds DOJ Attorney Defending Trump Executive Order Targeting Law Firm

A federal judge firmly swatted down a series of arguments from a Department of Justice attorney defending President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting the Jenner & Block LLP law firm at a hearing Monday, at one point uttering an exasperated “Give me a break!”

Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has issued a series of executive orders targeting by name multiple BigLaw firms that represented prominent Democratic clients like Hillary Clinton, refused to represent him or other pro-MAGA causes, hired former federal prosecutors that investigated him, or worked on the criminal cases he was facing before he won re-election.

The president’s social media posts and executive orders often lambast these firms using language accusing them of being “dishonest” and a “dangerous” risk to national security. The sanctions he has sought to impose include stripping the security clearances of the firms’ attorneys and staff (critically important for certain types of federal legal cases), terminating contracts the firms had with federal agencies, barring the firms’ employees from federal buildings (again, a major obstacle for the lawyers to represent their clients), demanding firms abolish diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and programs, and threatening additional civil and criminal investigations against the firms.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/give-me-a-break-judge-shreds-doj-attorney-defending-trump-executive-order-targeting-law-firm/ar-AA1DNgFP

NBC News: Trump quickly works to concentrate power and muzzle critical voices

From law firms and universities to the arts and the press, Trump has targeted these independent actors and tried to bend them to his worldview — willingly or not.

One by one, he is bending ostensibly independent actors under the weight of his power. So far, Trump has targeted the legal community, universities, the arts, career government employees and the press and brought them to heel in some measure, willingly or not. Law firms with even indirect ties to past investigations of Trump now face punitive measures that could put them out of business.

If Trump prevails by the end of his term, he’ll have influenced who votes in American elections and who does not, who gets to stay in America and who must leave, who pays off their student loans and who gets relief, who gets to question the president and who doesn’t.

He’s facing pushback, but working to sweep it away. A pliant Congress has largely forsaken its oversight role since Trump thundered back into office, leaving the courts as the main impediment to his ambitions. And Trump is challenging their authority with a resolve that has nudged the nation closer to a constitutional crisis than at any point in the last half century.

Pessimistic about government’s ability to hold Trump to account, one U.S. senator said a mass uprising may be the only means of derailing his plans.

“Ultimately, popular mobilization” is the only way to tame Trump, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said in an interview. The nation’s fate may come down to “the people on both the right and the left rising up in protest and demanding reform.”

Trump quickly works to concentrate power and muzzle critical voices