Democratic lawmakers press Paul Weiss, other firms on Trump deals

By David Thomas

April 7 (Reuters) - Democratic lawmakers are pressing six major U.S. law firms to explain their dealings with President Donald Trump after four of them offered concessions to his administration to avoid punishing executive orders.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland criticized the deals that Milbank, Paul Weiss, Skadden Arps and Willkie Farr made with Trump in their April 6 letters to those firms.

The agreements raise "the troubling prospect" that the Republican president unlawfully coerced the firms to allocate millions of dollars "to support his pet issues, making statements that support his agenda, and reversing firm policies he disagrees with," Blumenthal and Raskin, both Democrats, wrote.

Blumenthal, the ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, also sent letters to the chairs of Kirkland & Ellis and Sullivan & Cromwell, seeking more information about their "roles in facilitating the administration’s unlawful coercion of other law firms."

A spokesperson for Sullivan & Cromwell said the letter falsely alleged that it tried to lure away partners from Paul Weiss after that firm was hit with an executive order.

"To the contrary, our firm management made a deliberate decision not to approach any attorneys in response to the executive order," the spokesperson said in a statement. The spokesperson did not comment on the rest of the letter.

Spokespersons for the five other firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment, including whether they intend to comply with the requests.

With Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary committees are holding an unofficial hearing in Washington on Monday afternoon featuring career Justice Department lawyers who were either fired by Trump or resigned in protest.

Among those set to testify is Liz Oyer, who previously led the DOJ office that handles presidential pardon requests. Oyer was fired by Trump in March. The Justice Department sent armed U.S. Marshals to deliver a letter warning Oyer about testifying at Monday's hearing.

Rachel Cohen, a banking associate at Skadden who resigned days before the firm reached its deal with Trump, is also scheduled to testify.

Major law firms with ties to attorneys who have investigated Trump or which have been involved in challenges to his policies have been targeted with executive orders aimed at restricting their business with the federal government.

Three law firms — Perkins Coie, WilmerHale and Jenner & Block — have sued the administration over the executive orders, which sought to cancel their contracts with the government and block their attorneys from accessing federal buildings and officials. Judges have blocked key provisions of the orders.

Paul Weiss was hit with a similar order, but Trump rescinded it after the firm agreed to provide $40 million in free legal services to mutually agreed-upon projects with the administration and not to engage in illegal diversity-related employment practices. Milbank, Skadden and Willkie later reached similar deals with Trump without any order having been issued against them.

Kirkland, the largest U.S. law firm by revenue, is in talks with the White House to avoid an executive order, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Sullivan & Cromwell is representing Trump as he appeals his New York criminal conviction on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star, and the firm's co-chairman Robert Giuffra helped to negotiate Paul Weiss' agreement with Trump last month.

"Mr. Giuffra's role in this patently unlawful government action undertaken against a competitor is especially concerning given that Mr. Giuffra also serves as personal counsel to President Trump," Blumenthal and Raskin wrote.

The letters asked the firms to deliver their answers to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and the House Judiciary Committee by April 14.