Trump signs order targeting law firm behind $787.5m Fox defamation suit

Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday punishing the law firm that helped Dominion voting systems obtain a $787.5m settlement from Fox for lies about the 2020 election.

The order against the firm, Susman Godfrey, marks the latest effort by the president to punish attorneys and firms who have opposed his interests.

The order seeks to cripple the firm by limiting the firm’s attorneys from accessing government buildings, revoking security clearances and essentially making it impossible for the firm to represent anyone who has business before the federal government.

Trump’s rationale for targeting the firm was not immediately clear.

“There were some very bad things that happened with these law firms,” he said in the oval office on Wednesday when he signed the order.

Susman Godfrey represented Dominion voting systems in its lawsuit against Fox, which ended in a landmark settlement to avoid a trial. On Wednesday, a Delaware judge ruled in a separate lawsuit that the conservative outlet Newsmax Media defamed Dominion with its false reporting about a rigged 2020 election.

Trump has also issued orders punishing five other firms for connections to political rivals: Covington & Burling, Perkins Coie, Paul Weiss, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale.

Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale all have filed suit against Trump and successfully earned preliminary court orders blocking them. Susman Godfrey on Tuesday filed an amicus brief on behalf of several high-ranking government officials supporting Perkins Coie’s legal challenge.

“This firm is very involved in the election misconduct,” Stephen Miller, a top White House aide, said on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg.

Paul Weiss negotiated a widely-criticized settlement with Trump to have the order against it rescinded.

Experts say the orders are blatantly unconstitutional and violate the constitution’s guarantee of freedom of expression and the right to counsel. They also say they are an obvious anti-democratic effort by the president to intimidate lawyers from challenging his administration in court.

Several firms – Skadden, Arps, Meagher, & Flom; Milbank LLP; and Willkie, Farr, & Gallagher – have entered into preemptive settlements with the Trump administration to try and avoid executive orders. Many of the country’s largest and most prominent firms have stayed silent as several firms have been targeted.