A federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Trump from punishing the law firm Susman Godfrey, calling the retribution campaign he has waged from the White House against the nation’s top firms “a shocking abuse of power.”
In her ruling, the judge, Loren L. AliKhan of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, said that the executive order Mr. Trump signed last week targeting the firm stemmed from a “personal vendetta.” Susman Godfrey represented Dominion, a manufacturer of voting machines that lawyers allied with Mr. Trump falsely attacked when he lost the 2020 election.
The court decision grants the firm’s request for temporary relief and blocks the Trump administration from carrying out many of the order’s punishments, including one directing agencies to turn the firm’s lawyers away from federal buildings and another aimed at terminating any federal contracts Susman Godfrey holds.
It’s the latest legal setback for Mr. Trump in his efforts to cripple firms he has accused of helping “weaponize” the justice system against him and his allies. The president’s actions have split the legal elite, with some high-powered firms bowing to pressure from the White House and offering hundreds of millions of dollars worth of pro bono work on issues Mr. Trump supports. Others, like Susman Godfrey, have opted to fight back in court.
Judges elsewhere have issued temporary restraining orders blocking much of Mr. Trump’s executive orders targeting two major law firms that participated in investigations of him, Jenner & Block and WilmerHale.
For her part, Judge AliKhan made it known in her oral ruling that she viewed the split as an existential threat to the legal profession, and a brazen act of coercion by the White House.
“Law firms across the country are entering into agreements with the government out of fear that they will be targeted next and that coercion is plain and simple,” she said while delivering her ruling. “And while I wish other firms were not capitulating as readily, I admire firms like Susman for standing up and challenging it when it does threaten the very existence of their business.”
She further ordered the Trump administration to issue guidance to federal agencies and their staff to disregard those provisions of the order and to “carry on as if those sections of the executive order were never issued.”
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