WASHINGTON
\nLegal advocacy groups sounded alarms on Saturday after US President Donald Trump threatened new actions against lawyers and law firms that bring immigration lawsuits and other cases against the government that he deems unethical.
\nIn a memorandum to US Attorney General Pam Bondi late on Friday, Trump said lawyers were helping to fuel \u201crampant fraud and meritless claims\u201d in the immigration system, and directed the Justice Department to seek sanctions against attorneys for professional misconduct.
\nThe order also took aim at law firms that sue the administration in what Trump, a Republican, called \u201cbaseless partisan\u201d lawsuits. He asked Bondi to refer such firms to the White House to be stripped of security clearances, and for federal contracts they worked on to be terminated.
\nBen Wizner, a senior lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the new directive sought to \u201cchill and intimidate\u201d lawyers who challenge the president\u2019s agenda. Trump has separately mounted attacks on law firms over their internal diversity policies and their ties to his political adversaries. \u201cCourts have been the only institution so far that have stood up to Trump\u2019s onslaught,\u201d Wizner said. \u201cCourts can\u2019t play that role without lawyers bringing cases in front of them.\u201d
\nThe ACLU is involved in litigation against the administration over immigrant deportations, including the expulsion of alleged Venezuelan gang members.
\nThe 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\u2019s second term. Legal advocacy groups, along with at least 12 major law firms, have brought many of the cases.
\nA White House spokesperson, Taylor Rogers, said \u201cPresident Trump is delivering on his promise to ensure the judicial system is no longer weaponized against the American people.\u201d
\nThe 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.
\nLaw firm Keker, Van Nest & Peters, which is working with the ACLU in an immigrant rights case against the administration, said in a statement that it was \u201cinexcusable and despicable\u201d for Trump to attack lawyers based on their clients or legal work opposing the federal government.
\nRepresentatives from other prominent law firms that are representing clients in cases against Trump\u2019s administration, including Hogan Lovells, Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie and WilmerHale, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
\nTrump issued executive orders this month against law firms Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss, suspending their lawyers\u2019 security clearances and restricting their access to government buildings, officials and federal contracting work.
\nThe president also last month suspended security clearances of lawyers at Covington & Burling, in each case citing the firms\u2019 past work for his political or legal opponents.
\nThe Keker firm on Saturday called on law firms to sign a joint court brief supporting a lawsuit by Perkins Coie challenging the executive order against it.
\nPaul 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\u2019s causes such as support for veterans and combating antisemitism.
\nLawyers are bound by professional ethics rules that require them to investigate allegations before filing lawsuits and not deceive the courts. Imposing disciplinary sanctions on lawyers who violate such rules falls on the court system, not federal prosecutors, though prosecutors can charge lawyers with criminal misconduct.
\nSome lawyers aligned with Trump faced professional discipline over claims that they violated legal ethics rules in challenging Democrat Joe Biden\u2019s 2020 presidential election win over Trump.
\nFormer New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who later was an attorney for Trump, was disbarred in New York and in the District of Columbia over baseless claims he made alleging the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
\nLawyers for Civil Rights, a legal advocacy group suing the administration over deportations, called Trump\u2019s sanctions threat hypocritical in a statement to Reuters, saying Trump and his allies \u201chave repeatedly thumbed their noses at the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON Legal advocacy groups sounded alarms on Saturday after US President Donald Trump threatened new actions against lawyers and law firms that bring immigration lawsuits and other cases against the government that he deems unethical. In a memorandum to US Attorney General Pam Bondi late on Friday, Trump said lawyers were helping to fuel \u201crampant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-468804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n