House Democrats send letter to nine law firms that paid off Trump

Follow up to Biglaw Is Under Attack. Here’s What The Firms Are Doing About It and Law Firms Made Deals With Trump. Now He Wants More From Them – Via @jbendery.bsky.social – Here are 91 pages of letters that 14 House Democrats just sent to the nine law firms that have paid off Trump to not attack them. The letters focus on questions, and reference applicable law, aimed at sorting out if each firm violated federal bribery, anti-fraud, racketeering laws. Example as follows:

April 24, 2025 Mr. Brad S. Karp Managing Partner Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP 1285 Avenue of the Americas. New York, NY 10019 Re: Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP Agreement with the Trump Administration. “Dear Mr. Karp: We, the undersigned members of Congress, are writing to express our significant concerns regarding recent press reports claiming that your law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (“Paul Weiss”), agreed to provide $40 million in pro bono legal services to causes championed by President Donald Trump in exchange for President Trump revoking an Executive Order targeting Paul Weiss (the “Paul Weiss agreement”). The Paul Weiss agreement is one of a number of deals allegedly struck between major national law firms and the Trump administration. We are sympathetic to the circumstances in which your firm finds itself, with the Administration using coercive and illegal measures to target certain law firms and threaten their ability to represent and retain their clients. We urge you to disavow the Paul Weiss agreement, as we believe it is clear that continued performance under the Paul Weiss agreement (1) is unenforceable under contracts law; (2) would have enormous negative impacts on the legal system; (3) could potentially expose your firm and its attorneys to civil and criminal liability under state and federal law; and (4) creates potentially irresolvable violations of applicable Rules of Professional Conduct with respect to conflicts of interest and limiting an attorney’s future practice of law. It is a well settled principle of contracts law that illegal terms are unenforceable, and we believe that the terms of the Paul Weiss agreement may violate several state and federal criminal laws, as described below. We also believe that the agreement may have been formed under the threat of illegal and coercive acts and is therefore unenforceable under the doctrine of duress. Further, the imposition of numerous conflicts of interest between the terms of the agreement and your current and future potential clients raise significant ethical concerns and possible violations of applicable rules of professional responsibility. Given these concerns, your firm has several grounds upon which to disavow and pause the Paul Weiss agreement…”