The Justice Department has subpoenaed 14 major law firms for records about their communications tied to President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
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The State reported Monday that the Trump administration is escalating its fight with major law firms by using Justice Department subpoenas to demand records. The move is part of an ongoing lawsuit from the American Bar Association, which alleges the administration has been trying to punish law firms for their past legal work, diversity efforts and political relationships.
Trump issued an executive order in early 2025 targeting more than five law firms with connections to investigations into Trump. Three of those firms sued civilly, alleging it was retribution. Some of Trump’s biggest legal foes worked for the firms, so Trump targeted them, specifically naming the lawyers in the orders.
The broader suit comes from the American Bar Association, which alleges the administration used its authority to restrict things like access to federal buildings and security clearances and, in some cases, could hurt its clients’ government work.
Four of those firms that challenged the order in court have been successful, but some big firms agreed to hand over millions in free legal work. The ABA lawsuit wants a judge to declare the entire policy moot and prevent it from moving forward. The firms that were willing to settle with Trump could be put in an awkward position as a result.
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Among the many concerns the ABA cites, it said firms may stop taking certain clients or cases because they fear retaliation.
One of the details in the subpoenas deals with longtime Trump advisor Boris Epshteyn, who doesn’t work for the White House, but has reportedly been seen with the rest of the White House staff. Epshteyn appears to have been a go-between in dealmaking with the law firms that settled, reported the New York Times. The DOJ is demanding records of communications between the firms and Epshteyn and the ABA is now saying that they too want to see them.
Those communications could show the way that the bargains were made, what the White House wanted, and whether the arrangements were part of a broader pressure campaign. The Justice Department is trying to keep those communications under wraps, which suggests they’re central to the dispute. But since Epshteyn isn’t a government employee, it will be difficult to invoke executive privilege or any of the other protections that a president can use.
Ultimately, the law firms want to find out what the pressure campaign looked like behind the scenes and whether it used power to intimidate or manipulate the law firms.
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