In a memorandum to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi late on Friday, Trump said lawyers were helping to fuel “rampant fraud and meritless claims” in the immigration system, and directed the Justice Department to seek sanctions against attorneys for professional misconduct.
Ben Wizner, a senior lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the new directive sought to “chill and intimidate” lawyers who challenge the president’s agenda. Trump has separately mounted attacks on law firms over their internal diversity policies and their ties to his political adversaries. “Courts have been the only institution so far that have stood up to Trump’s onslaught,“ Wizner said. “Courts can’t play that role without lawyers bringing cases in front of them.”
The Trump administration has been hit with more than 100 lawsuits challenging White House actions on immigration, transgender rights and other issues since the start of the president's second term. Legal advocacy groups, along with at least 12 major law firms, have brought many of the cases.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the memorandum, which directed Bondi to assess lawyers and firms that brought cases against the government over the past eight years.
Representatives from other prominent law firms that are representing clients in cases against Trump's administration, including Hogan Lovells, Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie and WilmerHale, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The president also last month suspended security clearances of lawyers at Covington & Burling, in each case citing the firms' past work for his political or legal opponents.
Paul Weiss on Thursday struck a deal with Trump to rescind the executive order against it, pledging to donate the equivalent of $40 million in free legal work to support some of the administration's causes such as support for veterans and combating antisemitism.
Some lawyers aligned with Trump faced professional discipline over claims that they violated legal ethics rules in challenging Democrat Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election win over Trump.
Lawyers for Civil Rights, a legal advocacy group suing the administration over deportations, called Trump’s sanctions threat hypocritical in a statement to Reuters, saying Trump and his allies “have repeatedly thumbed their noses at the rule of law.”
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