Critics called the move “autocratic,” “authoritarian” and “hypocritical,” noting that Trump’s lawyers have made myriad false legal claims, including that he won the 2020 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A new memo from President Donald Trump that authorized the attorney general and the homeland security secretary to sanction law firms that file lawsuits they deem \u201cfrivolous” is a major escalation of his intensifying assault on law firms<\/a>, legal experts and former Justice Department officials told NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The presidential memorandum, \u201cPreventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court<\/a>,\u201d also ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to recommend revoking attorneys\u2019 security clearances or terminating law firms’ federal contracts if she deems their lawsuits against the administration “unreasonable” or “vexatious.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The memo, which was issued Saturday, follows executive orders against three firms: Covington & Burling<\/a>, which provided pro bono legal services to former special counsel Jack Smith, who secured an indictment against Trump; Perkins Coie<\/a>, which represented Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and worked with an opposition research firm that compiled a discredited dossier against Trump; and Paul Weiss<\/a>, where a former firm partner, Mark Pomerantz, tried to build a criminal case against Trump while he was working at the Manhattan district attorney\u2019s office several years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The executive orders suspended the security clearances of the firms\u2019 employees and barred them from some federal buildings, steps that would make it difficult for them to represent clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most important, the orders said the federal contracts of the law firms’ clients should be reviewed, as well. Brad Karp, the Paul Weiss chair who was criticized for striking a deal with Trump last week, cited that threat in a message to employees<\/a> that leaked soon after he sent it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The executive order could easily have destroyed our firm,” Karp wrote. “In particular, it threatened our clients with the loss of their government contracts, and the loss of access to the government, if they continued to use the firm as their lawyers.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump ally Steve Bannon said last week<\/a> that Trump’s goal is to bankrupt the firms the administration perceives as enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s going to put those law firms out of business,\u201d Bannon said. \u201cWhat we are trying to do is put you out of business and bankrupt you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A group of 22 civil rights organizations \u2014 including the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union \u2014 condemned the new memorandum in a statement<\/a>. They contended that it was intended to \u201cchill dissent, avoid accountability, and weaponize the government to attack opponents of this administration and its lawless actions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n White House officials defended the move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPresident Trump is delivering on his promise to ensure the judicial system is no longer weaponized against the American people. President Trump\u2019s only retribution is success and historic achievements for the American people,\u201d assistant White House press secretary Taylor Rogers said in a statement to news organizations<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Laufman, a former head of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence section who served in both Republican and Democratic administrations, called the use of executive branch power to intimidate law firms and lawyers unprecedented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf anyone, in any previous White House in the modern era, had ever hatched such an authoritarian plan to silence and punish the legal profession, the Attorney General and White House Counsel would have quietly intervened and the plan quickly would have been shelved,\u201d he said by text message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spokespersons for the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A former senior Justice Department official called the move autocratic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe president does not appreciate how an adversarial legal system works and the role of an impartial judge in that process,\u201d said the former official, who requested anonymity because of concerns about retaliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat is the best way to expose weak evidence and flawed arguments,” he added. “The president rejects that system in favor of one in which he wins and his adversaries lose and are punished. That is not justice; that is autocracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Legal experts also accused Trump of hypocrisy, noting that his own lawyers have violated Rule 11 of the federal rules of civil procedure<\/a>, which bar lawyers from making false or frivolous claims in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The former senior Justice Department official said Trump\u2019s legal claims that Joe Biden had won key swing states in 2020 by submitting fraudulent ballots \u201cutterly failed to meet the Rule 11 standards that Trump cited in his memorandum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n