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Trump is Trying to Subvert His Biggest Threat — Lawyers
Trump’s blitzkrieg rolls over liberal law firms.
It took six weeks for the German Army to trample over France. In roughly the same period, President Donald Trump scattered his biggest legal opponents into disarray by issuing over a hundred Executive Orders. The key to both victories, although short-lived for one and still to be decided for Trump, was having a plan and executing it quickly.
Trump had two well-funded research and planning organizations draw up what he wanted to accomplish and execute it through the legal process. These would be the Heritage Foundation (see How Trump Would Destroy the Deep State)and AFPI ( see Fifth Column: The Right Wing Think Tank behind Subversion of the Justice Department ).
Trump’s Executive Orders deny his opponents the right to choose the best counsel provided by aggressive liberal law firms in future court battles. Ellen Podgor, a Stetson University law professor and legal ethicist, told CNN, “We’ve never seen a president put out a specific order about a law firm.” She sees Trump as “depriving our whole right to counsel. This is a major amendment to our Constitution.”
Some law firms got Trump to withdraw his draconian orders by agreeing to some infringements on their lawyering. They just had to donate about a billion dollars in legal…