Democrats held a rare bicameral forum to examine the Trump administration’s actions targeting Department of Justice (DOJ) staff and major law firms as the party explores how to push back against the Trump presidency.
The forum featured a series of attorneys who were fired or resigned from the Justice Department or have pushed big law firms to respond to a series of executive orders from President Trump targeting firms.
“Donald Trump is taking unprecedented steps to bend our justice system to his will, and his administration is moving systematically and swiftly to dismantle the legal pillars that hold up our democracy,” said Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who organized the panel alongside Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
“If Donald Trump and his personal criminal defense lawyers now running the Justice Department succeed, the consequences will be profound.”
It’s clear the forum was on the radar of the Trump administration. The Justice Department was prepared to send U.S. marshals to the home of one of the invitees, Liz Oyer, the former U.S. pardon attorney.
“To all those who gathered across America … asking what Congress is doing to try to stop these excesses and these violations of the Constitution, remember what happens on this day. On this day, I think we are making history at the right moment,” Senate Judiciary ranking member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said.
Speaking to the panel from the Justice Department were Oyer, who was fired by the Justice Department after she would not recommend actor Mel Gibson have his gun rights restored, and Ryan Crosswell, a former attorney with the department’s public integrity section who resigned in the wake of the department’s bid to drop its case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Rachel Cohen, who resigned in protest of her law firm’s failure to respond to the Trump administration’s targeting of major law firms, also testified.
The forum touched on a number of topics, from the targeting of DOJ attorneys to the deals major law firms have signed with the Trump administration in the wake of executive orders blocking their attorneys from federal buildings.
Oyer said she came to the panel despite pushback from the department to highlight what she sees as broader abuse of DOJ power.
“I came because I don’t want to be complicit in what is happening inside the Department of Justice, which is the misuse of the resources of the department to do political favors for friends, of the president, for loyalists. And I just don’t believe that that’s right, and I don’t want to be part of it, so I feel that I need to speak up,” she said.
Oyer detailed more of her decision not to add Gibson to a list of individuals she was asked to compile for recommendation for restoration of gun rights, noting the actor’s misdemeanor conviction on domestic violence charges.
“I did not have enough information to convince me that I could recommend that it could be done safely,” she said.
She also noted Trump’s pardons of more than 1,500 charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol were done without any consultation of her office.
“The role is to ensure that people who are waiting their turn, who have meritorious cases, that those cases can make their way to the president’s desk,” she said.
“Those folks who have access to the White House through the front door — they don’t need the help of the Office of the Pardon Attorney to elevate their cause. And there are thousands of ordinary Americans who are seeking the mercy of the president through the clemency process, who are not being considered right now because the office is not being consulted.”
Lawmakers also had numerous questions for Cohen, who resigned amid a push to get her firm, Skadden Arps, to respond to a series of Trump administration actions targeting law firms.
In addition to orders stripping security clearances from firm attorneys, ordering a review of any of their government contracts and barring them from government buildings, Trump also signed an order encouraging sanctions on attorneys who file “vexatious” lawsuits.
Shortly after Cohen’s resignation, her firm signed a deal with the Trump administration committing to do $100 million in pro bono work.
Cohen faulted big law firms for not standing up to Trump as they would be expected to do for any of their clients.
“It’s likely they’re afraid of losing profits, but I think it’s also likely that these leaders are afraid, because standing up to authoritarianism is scary. It is easier to ignore what is happening than to acknowledge the fight that lies ahead,” she said.
She described Trump’s orders as seeking to cut off the aid large firms often give to nonprofits suing the executive branch.
“Everyone deserves an advocate. That principle is invoked by law firm partners to justify high profit but distasteful representations. Everyone deserves an advocate.. … Public interest attorneys themselves, separately targeted by the administration, are now also scrambling to replace resources and attention these firms historically provide as they challenge unconstitutional actions and provide direct representation to clients in need. This is intentional,” she said.
Cohen also pointed to a deal signed by the law firm Paul Weiss, noting that the firm called its being targeted by the Trump administration an existential crisis as the firm’s profit per equity partner was roughly $7 million last year.
Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) blasted the deal.
“It’s not an existential crisis whether you’re going to lose some money. We’re talking about the rule of law. It’s disgusting,” she said.
“Trump and all of his enablers, whether they’re in Congress or whether they’re at these law firms, seem to think that they can outrun this, that somehow we’re going to ride this out. We’re not going to ride this out. It’s not going away.”
