This is an adapted excerpt from the Aug. 4 episode of “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
As Donald Trump continues to push around the nation’s universities — suspending their federal funding and then shaking them down to comply with his demands — some colleges have decided to do deals with the White House. In recent weeks, Brown University coughed up $50 million and Columbia University paid more than $200 million.
Last week, there was reporting that an even bigger deal was in the works. The New York Times reported that Harvard University was preparing to fork over $500 million to appease Trump. However, according to the school’s student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, the university’s president told the faculty he is absolutely not considering such a deal.
The paper reports: “The University is seriously considering resolving its dispute with the White House through the courts rather than a negotiated settlement.”
Then there are the law firms that Trump has been pushing around. Nine big law firms struck deals with the president after he began issuing executive orders targeting certain firms. Four firms refused to make deals with Trump; they fought back and all four firms won in court.
Despite their success, new reporting from Reuters found that Trump’s assault on law firms has nevertheless had what is presumably the desired effect: Some big law firms are scaling back their pro bono work for the kinds of people or organizations the Trump administration is trying to victimize or persecute.
At the same time, smaller law firms and new purpose-driven legal organizations are being formed to make up the moral difference, to do the work that these big law firms are too cowardly to do and to stand up for people being fired by Trump when they’ve done nothing wrong.
On Monday, The New York Times reported on a new firm of just four lawyers — including two who were fired from the Justice Department this year by Trump — that is focused on challenging the administration in court, specifically with the aim of getting precedent-setting cases before the Supreme Court that could curtail the president’s power.
There are also those fighting against the administration who are using the standards of the legal profession, its internal ethics and rules, as a way to stand up and push back. The Freedom of the Press Foundation has taken on Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman by filing a disciplinary complaint against him with the D.C. Bar Association. The complaint accused the FCC chair of, among other things, intimidating media outlets in violation of professional conduct rules he is bound to follow as a lawyer.
Meanwhile, the D.C. Bar’s disciplinary board has just recommended that former Trump lawyer Jeffrey Clark be disbarred for his role in trying to help Trump overturn the 2020 election. The board said Clark should be disbarred “to send a message to the rest of the Bar and to the public that this behavior will not be tolerated.”
On top of these efforts, a legal watchdog group has filed professional ethics complaints against three lawyers who currently work for Trump’s Justice Department. The Legal Accountability Center has accused the attorneys of making false statements to a federal judge while defending the Trump administration in court.
“The rule of law is under direct assault right now, and its greatest threat comes when those within the legal system fail to do their duties and stand up against the attack,” Michael Teter, the group’s executive director, told The New York Times. “The message that needs to be heard by all attorneys representing the government is that even though the Trump administration isn’t interested in following the rules, we are watching.”
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
