President Trump announced another contract Tuesday with a law firm that he targeted potential punishment. This time, he hired Doug Emov, the husband of former vice president Kamala Harris.
Trump did not say why he targeted the company. In addition to his connections with Trump's defeated opponents in the November election, the company also employs top Congressional committee investigators who documented Trump's role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and litigators who led the suit in which two Georgia election workers filed a lawsuit filed by Rudolf W. Guliani paying $14.8 billion.
The deal between Trump and his company, Wilkie Far & Gallagher, is similar to what other top law firms have recently reached with Trump.
Wilkie said Trump pledged to represent his clients in a true social post regardless of their political tendencies and pledged $100 million in legal work for Trump's defending him. Trump said the company “does not engage in illegal DEI discrimination and preferences,” Trump said. Trump made an announcement in the Truth Social Post.
The executive orders Trump levelled against law firms are widely viewed as illegal and undemocratic in the legal community and have been heavily criticized by Democrats, legal experts and judges. Companies that cut their transactions with Trump have been criticized for being bent by Trump simply to protect their revenues, and it is unclear how the deal will be made and executed by the administration.
Harris is weighing the question of whether to run for California governor or president in 2028, and it is unclear how it will affect the relationship between Emov and Emov, who joined the company in January. Emov told the company leadership on Tuesday that he had signed a contract with Trump and should not fight for his place, according to anyone who explained the issue.
At an event at Georgetown Law School just before the contract was announced Tuesday, Emov said lawyers should step up and prepare to fight. Emov said the rule of law and democracy are under attack.
Trump has been running a retaliation campaign against them over the past month, making him a huge success targeting the country's top law firms.
For a long time, he has been thinking of some of the most powerful American institutions, three of whom have been making deals with Trump in exchange for rescinding his enforcement order or suppressing leveling.
These three companies that have chosen to fight have so far achieved a series of legal victories. On Friday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking many of the executive orders targeting two major law firms that participated in his investigation.
Trump said Wilkie Far & Gallagher has pledged to “employ, promote and retain merit” and “does not engage in illegal DEI discrimination and preferences.” He also said the company has committed to representing its clients regardless of their political beliefs.
Last week, Trump was surprised that businesses were willing to attack his deal with him.
“They're all saying, 'Sir, thank you so much,'” Trump said last week. He added:
In a statement, Trump said the company “provided a critical commitment to reaching out to President Trump and his administration and ending the weaponization of the judicial system and legal profession.” White House officials thought the administration hadn't planned an executive order targeting the company.
But people familiar with negotiations and emails sent to staff by the company's executive committee said, as they said, they explicitly warned that they were next on Trump's list for the executive order.
“The President has learned that he intends to issue executive orders targeting Willkie, similar to those issued to multiple companies in the past few weeks, and threatens to endanger our clients' rights and our rights,” the email said. “We were invited to contact the administration on Sunday and they outlined the proposed alternatives to receive the executive order.”
The White House said in a statement that the deal is the latest evidence that the president is “presenting his promise to eradicate partisan law in America and restore freedom and justice for all.”
“The entity of that contract is consistent with our views on clients' access to legal agents,” Thomas M. Cerabino, chairman of the company, said in a statement posted in Trump's true social statement.
In a memo to the company, its executive committee ultimately concluded that “accepting the administration's final proposal is the best path for the needs of its clients, protecting the various stakeholders of the company and avoiding potentially serious consequences.”
