Trump’s war on Big Law is a dangerous new development

The Washington Post ^ | March 31, 2025 | David Ignatius

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The administration’s attacks are a case study in how executive power can be abused.

For a month, President Donald Trump has been picking off his enemies among America’s top law firms. They have been vulnerable in part because they didn’t stand together. But some leading firms are now fighting back aggressively in what could be one of the epic battles of Trump’s presidency.

Trump’s campaign against the major law firms has tested the guardrails of the Constitution as much as any other action since Inauguration Day. Trump has declared his motive: He wants revenge against lawyers who investigated him during and after his first term and the firms that supported them. His assault threatened some of those firms’ very existence and drove two legal giants to make humiliating settlements to escape his wrath.

The story of how Trump mounted this attack on “Big Law,” as the major firms are often described, is a case study in how executive power can be used to punish enemies of the president. Trump has seemingly turned the law upside down: To fight against what he claims was “weaponization” of justice against him, he has used his presidential power as a sledgehammer.

Trump’s method has been intimidation by executive order. He has targeted about a half-dozen prominent firms directly and threatened the rest of the bar with sanctions if lawyers conduct “frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation” against his policies. And he has denounced judges who block his actions, describing them as “Radical Left Judges” and “Lunatics” who should be impeached.

Paul Clement, a former solicitor general in the Republican administration of President George W. Bush, summarized how dangerous Trump’s “personal vendettas” were in a brief filed Friday to defend WilmerHale, one of the targeted firms. He described Trump’s orders as an...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

How dare President Trump give them a taste of their own lawfare medicine!

[madison10]

They started it.

[piasa]

Funny how they were never worried about Obama, Biden, Clinton and Pelosi punishing their opposition using lawfare.

[MachIV]

Shakespeare was right.

[Mr. K]

But it’s okay for lower level judges to tell The President what to do....

[jacknhoo]

“For a month, President Donald Trump has been picking off his enemies among America’s top law firms.”

_______________

For a month, President Donald Trump has been picking off the USA’s enemies among America’s top lawfare firms.

Fixed it.

[piasa]

This is really rich coming from David Ignatius of all people.

“McCain associate planned anti-Trump leaks to Washington Post columnist [David Ignatius]
Washington Times ^ | August 28, 2020 | Rowan Scarborough
Posted on 8/28/2020, 6:46:36 PM by MarvinStinson

The associate of John McCain who spread anti-Trump dossier claims around Washington planned to leak a story to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius about Paul Manafort, according to court testimony.

Ignatius wrote the Jan. 12, 2017 column that eventually doomed retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. The source was an Obama administration official, Ignatius wrote.”

[Steely Tom]

Funny how they were never worried about Obama, Biden, Clinton and Pelosi punishing their opposition using lawfare.

Once again, the Left, and the March to Progressivism, is simply "what is."

Anything that opposes it is "the extreme Right."

As observed by Rush Limbaugh.

[Nervous Tick]

“First, let’s kill all the lawyers”, then we can discuss WaPo’s whiny complaint.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

He didn’t start this war.

[I-ambush]

The Constitution says that powerful law firms must be privileged with security clearances and in-house SCIFs? Such things were very useful when they were doing the bidding of the Democrat establishment.

[I-ambush]

The Constitution says that powerful law firms must be privileged with security clearances and in-house SCIFs? Such things were very useful when they were doing the bidding of the Democrat establishment.

[SpaceBar]

‘Big Law’ is why we are here.

A system of justice was long ago abandoned for a legal industry.

[Jim Robinson]

Dangerous to the Corrupt Democrats.

[McGavin999]

They were the ones who said there is no such thing as attorney privilege. What did they think was going to happen.

[clintonh8r]

…but lawfare itself is not dangerous. Not at all.

[MtnClimber]

Turnabout is fair play. The ‘RATs have MUCH more “FAIR PLAY” they need to experience.

[piasa]

On April 13, 2016, Robert Mueller (before appointed SC) met at the WH for over 12 hours with Aaron Zebley (a Clintonista atty who was representing HC’s document-destroying IT guy), and Stefanie Osburn, the director of 0bama’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
And it gets better: the meeting happened the day after the DNC hired Fusion GPS.

I’d say that this is scary weird.

1 posted on 1/26/2018, 7:47:01 PM by mojito

Mueller and Zebley were both partners at Elmer Hale back then.

[sauropod]

Ignatius is a deep staye propagandist.

/SPIT!

[meyer]

Trump didn’t start a war with “big law” - Big law started a war with trump. And they will lose. As they should.