Whitehouse Probes Trump Extortion of Law Firms

Nine firms have agreed to provide nearly $1 billion in free legal aid to the Trump Administration to avoid retribution, raising concerns of coerced litigation to benefit fossil fuel industry

Washington, D.C.—Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), launched a probe into nine U.S. law firms that have capitulated to pressure from President Trump and agreed to provide nearly $1 billion collectively in pro bono legal services to the Administration to escape its “attacks and retaliatory actions.”  The Ranking Member warned that “there is abundant reason to expect that [the firms] may be dragooned by the Trump Administration into fossil fuel’s service.”

In letters to Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Milbank; Willkie Farr & Gallagher; Kirkland & Ellis; A&O Shearman; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Latham & Watkins; and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, Ranking Member Whitehouse requested documents and information about the scope of the agreements and how far they go in undermining action on climate change, which would put families and the entire U.S. economy at risk.  Not only might the agreements violate the Antideficiency Act but, as has become clear in recent days, they are also intended to weaponize private law firms to help Trump escalate his attacks on clean energy and climate safety in service of the fossil fuel industry, increasing costs for families and undermining the entire economy.

“Such arrangements reportedly originally contemplated pro bono representation for largely uncontroversial causes, such as advocating for veterans.  Now, reportedly, ‘some Trump advisers have started having discussions about a range of options for what the firms’ lawyers can be deployed to work on’ …. While signing executive orders targeting state and local climate laws and attempting to prop up the coal industry, President Trump announced to a group of coal executives and miners, ‘We’re going to use some of those firms to work with you on your leasing and your other things,’” wrote Ranking Member Whitehouse.

Ranking Member Whitehouse warned law firms of the responsibility they would carry for helping precipitate a 2008-style financial crisis should they “willfully participat[e] in efforts to deny climate science; facilitate mass firings of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staff; dismantle federal research, regulatory, and enforcement capacities; or otherwise help ‘drive a dagger through the heart of the climate change religion’ …. The fossil fuel industry exerts near-dominion over the Trump Administration and has a well-established record of inducing attorneys general whom it supports politically to provide the industry free legal services at taxpayer expense.  Between that practice and President Trump’s comments to the coal industry, there is abundant reason to expect that you may be dragooned by the Trump Administration into fossil fuel’s service.”

Ranking Member Whitehouse requested full compliance with his inquiry by May 30, 2025.

The full text of the letters is available here.