WAR ON LAWYERS

I have written before about Trump's predilection for attacking opposing lawyers as opposed to the merits of the issues involved in  Trumpian litigations. As I noted in my previous blog, I have encountered this directly in a pre-presidential Trump litigation, and have commented about it in the earliest days of his presidency. 

On some subjects, he is consistent. Recently, he has stood the profession on its ear by taking outrageous steps to punish lawyers for their advocacy. He has stripped security clearances of the firm of Perkins Coie because of its representation of 2016 election adversaries. Pursuant to Trump's executive order, government employees may not meet with the firm's lawyers and they are barred from all federal buildings. Whether this means they cannot enter federal courthouses, I am not sure, but the order is outrageous and if it's not unconstitutional, then it should be. A federal judge has already stayed challenged parts of the Trump order.  The judge has called it "retaliatory animus" and noted she expected the "legal profession was watching in horror."

In addition, Trump has stripped security clearances from Covington and Burling lawyers who represent Jack Smith, the prosecutor who pursued Trump (unsuccessfully) for pre-presidential felonies. The only announced rationale for that action is Trump's repeated charge that prosecutor Jack Smith was "deranged."

This is not just a hypothetical constitutional discussion. The Perkins firm reports that it has lost major clients as a result. And it is not unreasonable to expect that the firm will suffer adverse effects in the process of enlisting new clients as well.

The other side of the coin is the public and professional criticism of the law firm Sullivan and Cromwell for its agreement to represent Trump on the appeal of his 32-count New York felony conviction. Trump was found guilty of making fraudulent book entries to hide hush money payments related to his adulterous relationship with Stormy Daniels during his wife’s pregnancy. The criticism has opened an old sore: reports of a horrendous “bending of the knee” by the Sullivan firm— the revelation that for several years in the early 30s, Sullivan and Cromwell's Berlin office signed “Heil Hitler" on all office correspondence. 

Is Trump sending a message? 

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