16 House Dems Ask Law Firms that Capitulated to Trump If They’ve Thought about Their Bribery Exposure
Back on April 15, I wrote a post highlighting an amicus brief submitted in the Perkins Coie case that raised concerns that the agreements law firms made with Trump might expose the firms to bribery prosecution.
Just as the President’s decision to issue executive orders that sanction certain law firms is an official act, so too is the President’s decision to withhold issuing executive orders that would sanction other law firms. See McDonnell v. United States, 579 U.S. 550, 574 (2016) (holding that for purposes of construing § 201, an “official act” essentially has two components: (1) “the public official must make a decision or take an action” on (2) “something specific and focused that is ‘pending’ or ‘may by law be brought’” before a public official). A law firm’s commitment to provide valuable pro bono services to the President’s preferred causes, made “with intent to influence” the decision whether to issue or withhold an executive order targeting those law firms, would appear to meet the quid pro quo requirement of federal bribery law.
[snip]
In the present circumstances, the Department of Justice likely would conclude that it is not in the public interest to prosecute law firms that offer pro bono services in exchange for avoiding the consequences of an executive order, even if that offer arguably constitutes a violation of § 201.3 Regardless, the President’s exertion of pressure on law firms to engage in conduct that could violate federal anti-bribery law further illustrates the ethical quandaries these executive orders create. Allowing Executive Order 14,230 to take effect would put more pressure on law firms to reach agreements with the President to avoid a similar fate, and in doing so compromise themselves to potential criminal liability.
3 Or perhaps not: the threat of criminal prosecution is a potent form of influence the federal government could exert to compel law firms to continue complying with the President’s demands. Cf. United States v. Adams, No. 24-CR-556, 2025 WL 978572, at *36 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 2, 2025) (stating that the government “extract[ing] a public official’s cooperation with the administration’s agenda in exchange for dropping a prosecution . . . would be ‘clearly contrary to the public interest’” because it “violate[s] norms against using prosecutorial power for political ends” (quoting United States v. Cowan, 524 F.2d 504, 513 (5th Cir. 1975))).
Today, a group of House Democrats led by Dave Min wrote the firms that capitulated to Trump, raising the same concern.
While we do not know all of the particular facts about the circumstances of the Skadden agreement with President Trump, this agreement on the surface appears to have been struck in order to appease President Trump so that he would not issue an Executive Order targeting Skadden. If this is the case, Skadden’s settlement raises a number of concerns, including potential violations of federal and state statutes, as well as several Rules of Professional Conduct, including the below:
Potential Federal Law Violations
1. 18 U.S.C. § 201(b)(1): The Skadden agreement could potentially implicate this federal anti-bribery statute, which prohibits anyone, under threat of both criminal and civil liability, from corruptly offering and promising something of value to public officials with the intent to influence their official acts.
2. 18 U.S.C. § 1951: The Hobbs Act prohibits obstruction, delay, or affecting commerce by extortion under color of official right. By participating in this arrangement, performance under the Skadden agreement may be argued to constitute the aiding, abetting, and/or conspiracy with officials in the commission of these offenses, as established in precedents such as United States v. Torcasio, 959 F.2d 503, 505-506 (4th Cir. 1992); United States v. Spitler, 800 F.2d 1267, 1276-79 (4th Cir. 1986); and United States v. Wright, 797 F.2d 245 (5th Cir. 1986).
3. 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341/1343, 1346, 1349: These statutes prohibit schemes to defraud the public of the honest services of public officials using mail and wire communications. The Skadden agreement may be argued to constitute such a scheme involving bribery, as defined by the Supreme Court in Skilling v. United States, 561 U.S. 358 (2010).
4. 18 U.S.C. § 1962: The RICO statute prohibits participation in an enterprise engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity. It may be argued that the Skadden agreement, which involves Skadden, its partners, the President, and other executive officials may constitute an association-in-fact enterprise engaged in predicate offenses including bribery.
This effort follows a more timid previous effort from Richard Blumenthal and Jamie Raskin.
A lot of lefties complain that members of Congress aren’t standing up to oppose Trump’s authoritarianism.
Letters like this are an example of things that fit solidly within normal legislative effort that help with messaging in the short term but might serve as a powerful lever down the road.
And if they give firms an excuse to renege on the deals in the short term? All the better.
Since DOJ will only act in trump’s interest, could these be charged on the state level?
It’s gratifying to see dems do something.
The letter(s) do reference a New York State law, but the conduct does seem to fit more squarely under the federal statutes, although as you correctly note it seems unlikely to see action on that front from a Bondi-led DOJ.
Ultimately, as with some of the J6 legal “masterminds” the more immediate consequences may come instead from the various Bars looking at violations of ethical rules.
Bars? The relations of the administration are trying to win positions on the DC bar now as I write this. Perhaps someone has counted the preferences of the various Bars?
Missed this comment. State? What about international. UK Anti-corruption law seems applicable here, several of these firms have offices there, and the statutes have global reach for conduct.
I kinda wish the mention of statutes had included a reminder of the relevant statute of limitations on those statutes, since my understanding is that at least the bribery statute has a 5-year SoL which means there’s suddenly a lot of exposure for these firms if the presidency changes hands…
The seeming advantage of prosecuting this on a state level is bypassing this pres’ pardons for fed offenses.
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People want big splasy speeches, but this nuts-and-bolts stuff matters a whole lot more. It sounds like our lawmakers are finally getting organized in the face of an existential threat, and feeling their way toward being an opposition party. They should hire McConnell to give a seminar. Hell, he might even do it for a meal.
I thought Trump had already legalised bribery but what he actually did was stop enforcing anti-bribery laws.
A stupid person might think that was the same thing. If you’re a lawyer, it’s probably fine. Especially if you’re a ‘Trump lawyer’.
According to the Supremes, isn’t “bribery” to be considered “gratuities” now? Of course, I believe that’s for politicians after the fact and might not apply to law firms in advance of threatened actions.
I think that’s why the letter cites state laws.
These firms are also exposed to criminal and civil penalties for non-US anti-corruption statutes, which are alarmingly global in scope. I’d be surprised if their overseas partners haven’t already advised their US offices that they can be on the hook to their colleagues actions.
Re the capitulating law firms —
Going forward, who would want to hire them? Most people or companies want an attorney that is knowledgeable, smart, strategic, unafraid, strong, (honest).
This.
If I need a lawyer, I want the firm to put my interests first, not theirs. The last thing I want is a law firm that says “Hmmm . . . if we argue on behalf of this client, it could look bad. And if we win, it could really get ugly with the government.”
I wonder how many of the lawyers at these big firms are rethinking their employment. (Cousin by marriage is an insurance law guy; he joined one of these outfits a few years back, after practicing on his own for a long time. He’s close to when he can retire.)
Hmm. So, if I need a lawyer to represent me in front of the government, I should look for one that has bribed them already so I will get good results from the representation? That would be putting my interests first, no? Ah … life ain’t easy.
These big law firms act as if they have no choice, like they are paying protection money to Al Capone. But a major law firm is not a helpless speakeasy owner and capitulating to Trump is both horrible and counterproductive. Even without the specter of bribery laws, they should realize appeasing a tyrant will lead to more, and more extravagant, demands.
I believe it was Dr. Maddow that mentioned this today. All law firms and Colleges that gave in to Trumps blackmail still do not have their funding restored. As the line in the poem by Kipling states so eloquently:
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
True dat! And unlike everyone else, they don’t have to worry about ruinous legal fees. The talent is right there in-house.
I can hear Popehat now. “It’s not the RICO. It is never the RICO.”
But if Popehat says it’s RICO, we can get ready to party!
In another court:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-elections-executive-order-citizenship-lawsuit-4b683fe2e1106316fdb05621be9b7d0e
Judge blocks some of The Felon Guy’s changes to [federal] voter registration requirements.
(It’s Kollar-Kotelly.)
Another decision, judge Orrick in the 9th circuit:
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/judge-bars-trump-from-denying-federal-funds-to-20292507.php
The government can’t deny appropriated funds to “sanctuary cities”.
and they want to shrink and mine national monuments:
https://www.sfgate.com/national-parks/article/trump-admin-mulls-shrinking-national-monuments-20293346.php
This maladministration can’t possibly end soon enough.
And non citizen voting in national elections isn’t even a thing except in the tortured minds of trump and magas.
About 95% of the voting fraud I’ve heard about has been done by Rs, voting for someone else, or trying to vote twice, or voting in a place they don’t live.
Google “voter fraud.” Rs always come up.
hah!
another sobriquet to tar the felon guy’s GOP with : the Party of Voter Fraud.”
I heard of one Dem doing it.
Well, are fox viewers going to trust google?
I yandexed (yandex.com) “voter fraud” and the first site recommended was:
https :// ifapray. org/blog/voter-fraud-across-the-nation-state-by-state-examples/
I really don’t trust google’s ranking algorithms, but yandex seems like a pretty trustworthy site, right?
Do NOT link that white supremacist bullshit here. This is what IFA says they are:
Everything on their About Us page is one long white supremacist dog whistle demanding a Christian theocracy in the US. They slap a couple photos of anonymous Black persons in their graphics but their Our Leaders page is pasty white.
Learn how to bypass Google’s AI and algorithms. It can be done. Or as I mention below, use StartPage. You’ve been on the internet long enough not to be this clueless and not to parrot right-wing crap thereby acting as an amplifier.
RipNoLonger says: April 24, 2025 at 9:15 pm
Wikipedia: “Russian multinational technology company”
I wouldn’t trust that one.
@ P J Evans
I know the source of yandex.
My point was more “can you trust google who has financial entanglements with almost all large/medium corporate interests?” And, I’d expect that there are many cooperative connections with multiple government/other organizations around the world.
Reply to RipNoLonger
April 24, 2025 at 9:15 pm
Why after all that’s been written at this site about Russian spying, influence operations, interference in US democracy, kleptocratic behavior, and war crimes would you promote the use of a Russian search platform? You may not have provided a link but you attempt to persuade others it’s somehow better than plain old vanilla capitalistic operations?
Just stop. Use StartPage instead — at least you’ll get some privacy protections.
At this point in the election cycle, unless advanced search tools are used to narrow the query, you’ll pull up many stories in which allegations of voter fraud have been made by Republicans in order to skew perception about the frequency of voter fraud — IOW, the GOP is sowing FUD.
Example:
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2024/10/29/ohio-election-chiefs-own-numbers-say-fraud-is-extremely-rare-he-says-thats-a-bogus-narrative/
The GOP official is desperately trying to push his own narrative to sow FUD.
P J Evans says:
April 24, 2025 at 6:58 pm
I heard of one Dem doing it.
==============
I heard he died of loneliness of being the only one.
/s
To approve a settlement some people beyond an aministrative head of a law firm need to approve. A majority of partners/shareholders, some deciding majority has to ratify negotiations. How does that fit individual liability beyond the firm’s position and negotiator fault? Lawyers change firms, and what of those leaving but having approved the settlement? Or of those leaving and joining firms still in litigation against the shakedown? Do they take immunity with them, or assume a loss of immunity when absenting the compliant firm?
Also, these are fact-finding letters. I doubt a merger clause would supersede what went on, how strongly were you leaned on, what did administration people actually say? How were threats worded, not in paperwork, but in conversations? Did you get an ethics opinion from an independent outside lawyer, or consult a bar association? It is a thicket, and if it is an ongoing RICO thing, what if the other party takes the presidency? If an ongoing dimension exists, how does that impact any limitations statute?
Those are details, but details matter.
If discovery gets to a stage of who within the firm said what to others in the firm, the topic of whether things were discussed in terms of bribery worries would be up for grabs. Yeah, the guy with the biggest share wanted a safe landing, and damn any concern of potentials where we can cross bridges if we get to them. That could be damning for some lawyers if it gets to that.
The traditional form of general “partnership” among lawyers has been enhanced through a variety of structures, such as professional and limited liability corporations, which are a function of state law.
Whatever form a firm and its members choose has a leadership structure. Its head, originally called a managing partner, has authority on behalf of the firm to make agreements on behalf of the partnership. What that authority is is a function of the partnership agreement or similar document.
Complex problems, such as apparent authority to bind the firm, are beyond the limits of this venue, as is what liability a former partner keeps after leaving the firm and for how long. Suffice it to say that your concept of “immunity” doesn’t apply.
A few things come to mind here:
1. If a firm (say, Benedict, Arnold, & Underbus) is one of the firms that caved to Trump, what happens if that firm later decides to inform Trump that they are withdrawing from the agreement. That would throw a lot of attention onto the whole deal.
2. What if your firm is one of those that didn’t cave and is representing a client in court. The opposing firm caved to Trump and is following his pro bono demands. Are there issues that should be brought to the judge’s attention?
3. This attempt at banning selected law firms access to federal properties seems ripe for high level reversal. I worked in Galveston, Texas in the 1980s. Our office was in the Galveston U.S. Post Office and Courthouse. There a bunch of other federal agencies in the building, including that post office and court; plus, Coast Guard, Customs Patrol, the Weather service, etc. All are federal offices where people are allowed or require access. Who was supposed to enforce the ban?
Does this mean that legislation is now needed to ensure the independence of the federal judiciary? It would have to cover, in minute detail, all aspects of infrastructure, personnel, access control, court orders, etc. It’s scary to contemplate a judiciary that has too much power and authority, but less scary than contemplating a judiciary whose orders are just words on paper – a legal “suggested serving”.
“If a firm (say, Benedict, Arnold, & Underbus) “…reminded of another famous firm…Dewy, Cheatum and Howe.
Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk
I get the impression that this administration does not really care about these details.
It’s deny, delay, appeal as long as possible while the system crumbles. A pity if Roy Cohn is really the architect of all this crap. (No, I realize there are other influencers…)
Note well that I am not a lawyer, or even trying to play one on the Internet.
Your list of three makes sense to me, but
made me wonder if there’s a 2.5. If your firm didn’t cave, you’re facing a firm that caved, and you didn’t prevail, would that be likely to appear as a conversation topic in appeal filings?
Pre-executive orders, I think I know what the relationship between a random free-standing law firm and the executive branch is (at least, from the 20,000-meter level). Once a firm has caved to the executive branch, does the relationship between the caving law firm and the executive branch affect the way appeals work?
To invert some unhappy history, we might say that these firms chose not to stand at the schoolhouse door.
OT:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-white-house-decor-flagpoles-gold-bd95330220d2d6af43d3a08281f8ccce
The White House is 70′ tall and already has a flag that is visible to everyone. Literally nobody thinks this is a problem. But Tiny needs to pretend that only he has the vision to see how he can “make it even greater.”
Because real Patriots know that the more flags you fly and the higher you fly them proves you love your country more.
Il patriottismo e’ come il cazzo. Non importa veramente la misura, ma non si sventolarlo in pubblico.
Only a small d-energy guy would even think of such a thing. Compensation issues, truly.
I’m reminded of the completely ridiculous ‘flagpole war’ along the Korean DMZ. Either that or it’s (ahem) overcompensation.
Or antennas.
Wait until a storm blows the flag off or breaks the pole. (It happens.)
I grew up in a town that had a 120 foot pole – wood – put in in 1905. It got moved in 2004 and it’s now only 100 feet tall. (Replaced with steel, at a slightly different location. It’s a local thing: you use the flagpole as a locator. The post office is a block south of the flagpole, on the left.)
I’m not an attorney, but I, too, wonder about these law firm “agreements” with Trump. I’ll admit I haven’t done a lot of research about them, but were they in writing or did they use the Trump system of winks/nods (i.e., were they “informal”)?
Aren’t some agreements kind of like contracts, in which the contract/agreement would not be found valid if one of the parties used wrongful means to force agreement from the other party. (or something like that)
A contract to commit an illegal act is void and unenforceable.
Isn’t that the bottom line?
If they exist, they would be in writing. Otherwise, in addition to the other points here, there is nothing to point to in court and FWIW, the non-negotiating partners would take a chunk out of the negotiators for legal malpractice.
I know this is elementary but I am still confused about the real transactions expected in these contracts. According to trump the contracts “show that firms [also] agreed to strike Diversity, Equity and Inclusion considerations from their hiring practices — committing to “Merit-Based Hiring, Promotion, and Retention” while also pledging that they would not deny representation to clients based on political views.” How does the trump regime monitor that? By visual inspection lineups to check for for trump affiliation, ethnicity & sex? Did the partners just want to be free of DEI anyway?
Also if pro bono work would be for trade negotiations; has any work been done during these last foul weeks? Will this “designated use” slip into representation for personal trump defense representation? Can these contracts negate a lawyer’s legal prohibition against knowingly facilitating untruths. Have any firms commenced work for the trump regime yet.
Is this bribery or is it a protections racket or both? Participation seems messy and illegal, anyway you see it.
Finally, does the legal representation have to be good quality? After all, Blanche and Habba fail trump doesn’t seem to notice or blame.
Maybe the lawyers at Dewey, Cave, And Howe, thought that they could find so many ways of evading the poorly thought through terms that the agreements were never going to present a problem. And the likelihood is that other firms that are suing the government would prevail. So they are now in Trump’s good graces without having to comply with the agreement.
They forgot to factor in the negative p.r. And the fact that Trump’s motivation was to humiliate them and cause them to avoid clients who oppose Trump.
David Kendall, HRC’s former lawyer, wrote an op-ed in WaPo on April 22, 2025.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/04/22/trump-law-firms-paul-weiss/
Trump’s ‘deal’ with law firms: Who’s bamboozling whom?
“The deals do not appear to have been formalized in bilateral documents, signed by the parties and specifying respective duties, obligations and penalties for noncompliance.” IANAL, but I would think that first tier Law Firms know that such detailed contracts are routinely written for all parties.
You don’t need to work at a white shoe law firm to know that these agreements would need to be in writing to be enforceable, assuming that the firms have not already begun to fulfill them.
So, if it’s true that there are no bilateral agreements spelling out the terms of these deals, Trump has nothing but an embarrassing propaganda mess on his hands. That would be typical of Trump’s disregard for process and detail.
I’m not exactly certain that these agreements would in fact have to be in writing, with the caveat being that it’s been a long time since 1L and the Statute of Frauds, so don’t quote me there.
But in any event, I’m sure the brainiacs at Paul Weiss could come up with other, more obvious, reasons that this agreement is not enforceable, such as illegal purpose, duress and perhaps most obviously (given the subsequent differing statements from Paul Weiss and the administration about what was required)— no meeting of the minds.
This is not to detract from what I take the larger point to be which is why on Earth would a potential client ever engage these guys after a performance like this? Fecklessness disguised as savvy.
Everything you said, and also what about a lawyer who worked at or interned for one of these law firms? Are they still hireable, or has their association with one of the firms that gave in made them so suspect they can’t be hired?
IANAL, but I’d want it in writing. (I’ve heard of promised deals falling through because they weren’t in writing and the person making the deal wasn’t the legal owner.)
“And if they give firms an excuse to renege on the deals in the short term? All the better.”
Since 1) there is apparently nothing in writing, 2) Trump has indicated he may come back to wet his beak again, 3) a verbal deal with Trump isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, the meaning of “renege” seems problematic.
It’s nice to see my newly minted member of Congress Sam Liccardo signing on to this letter. I always thought of him as an empty suit when he was mayor of San Jose. I doubt his predecessor would have.
One thing that has seems to be lost in all of this is that many of the senior partners in these white-shoe BigLaw firms are themselves very conservative greedy types – if not MAGA, certainly MAGA-adjacent – who have no problems at all with the Trump agenda and are just fine with going along with all of it.
That could very well be true, but they don’t seem to be thinking about the long term.
Alternately, they’re saying ‘nice doggy’ while they look for a stick. (We agreed under duress because we needed to have lawyers in Federal court the next day and what contract did we sign? Free work? Fuck you! We’ve done our research and now we’re joining the lawsuit against you. Don’t look at us like that. What the fuck did you expect we’d do?)
Alternatively, and to rocky’s point, maybe they ARE thinking in a long term that the rest of us would well consider a nightmare
“Average compensation for partners in larger law firms is $1.4 million, a record high that represents a 26% increase since 2022 …”
ABA Journal
Debra Cassens Weiss
October 29, 2024
Just know that my friend, a partner at such a place, resigned to become a high school physics teacher before he died. He used to say, a couple of decades ago, it was too late.
“Just know that my friend … it was too late.” But perhaps better late than never? Or maybe just a cautionary tale.
“You can be shaped, or you can be broken. There is not much in between. Try to learn. Be coachable. Try to learn from everybody, especially those who fail. This is hard.”
― David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
Thanks Honeybee.
Simple question: are these agreements between law firms and Trump written down? Are they contracts or just verbal agreements? What are the chances they “bend the knee” to get Trump to leave them alone, then slow-roll any actual legal work down the line?
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IANAL but a friend of mine is, and he thinks that this is all a nothing burger. I originally sent him an associated article from Talking Points Memo (Aaron Bailey he’s an OPSEC expert, not a lawyer. He’s interpreting this article:
https:// talkingpointsmemo. com/edblog/whats-really-in-the-white-house-law-firm-agreements), to which he responded:
“This…isn’t really within the realm of legal reality to my knowledge. Disqualification of opposing counsel is almost always tied to the rights of *the opposing party* – unless there’s a conflict of interest where e.g. opposing counsel had previously been your counsel, there’s not a lot of attack surface trying to get the other guy’s counsel thrown out. There is no right to non-coercively sourced opposing counsel.
These are largely bullet points and letters because so much of it is so “fuzzy” it defies good contract drafting. How the fuck do I precisely legally define “DEI” or “Unamerican” in an enforceable and effective manner? Good luck with that.
Extortion and bribery may be crimes, but the mere fact that the gov’t threatened legal action if you didn’t do what it wanted isn’t extortion. That’s just protected settlement communication. That’s every plea deal, investigation, demand letter, and cease & desist ever written – “you’re doing X, we believe X is illegal, stop doing X or we’ll come down on you like a ton of bricks.”
TL;dr – I don’t think the original author knows what he’s talking about, as that’s not how bribery, extortion, or counsel disqualification work. Though as always, when talking about a topic as big as “all federal and state criminal law + all codes of judicial procedure + all obscure inter-branch jurisprudence”, I could totally be missing something.”
I then provided him with a link to the article we’re all commenting on, and he responded thus:
“That’s unfortunately….worse legal analysis. Again, it completely ignores settlement privilege among about a dozen other major omissions or misstatements.
For instance, while it could well be an ethical conflict to represent a client adverse to the government while trying to stay in the government’s good graces, (a) no State Bar is going to go around sanctioning attys for avoiding conflict with the government (i.e. the government isn’t going to punish you for settling with the government), and more importantly, (b) that kind of conflict is inherent to certain legal practices across the spectrum, and doesn’t rise to the level of sanctionable conflict.
For example, many public defenders play nice with prosecutors to avoid creating a hostile environment. Most zoning and planning attorneys want to avoid a nasty fight with the zoning board because they’ll be up before the same zoning board for 5 other clients within the next 90d. Many of the senior partners who leapfrog from govt position to private practice aren’t exactly in a rush to go fight their former colleagues. Nearly all attorneys avoid pissing off judges. Etc.
I don’t say that to excuse it – I’ve avoided relying on zoning attorneys for years now for exactly that reason. I shop for the sharp ones and I check their homework every step of the way to make sure they’re not playing too nice. But it’s just as arguable that maintaining cordial and amicable relationships with major stakeholders *is* zealous and effective advocacy for their clients, and some of my best results have been when I (whether as client or co-counsel) can play “bad cop” and the zoning atty can play “good cop.” ”
So, is my learned friend wildly off base? I’d love to hear the opinions of some of the august legal minds who comment here.