DOJ pulls about-face, aims to pursue Trump’s cases against Dem-connected law firms

The Justice Department made a stunning U-turn Tuesday, asking a federal appeals court for permission to continue pursuing President Trump’s retaliation against four Democrat-connected law firms — less than 24 hours after the DOJ asked the court to dismiss the cases.

The department, in new filings with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, didn’t say why it was reversing.

But the move was startling, given the action of Monday, when the DOJ told the same court it reached agreements with the four firms to shut down the appeals.

Deputy Associate Attorney General Abhishek Kambli told the court that it hadn’t accepted the dismissal, so there shouldn’t be any harm in letting the cases proceed.

The law firms, though, howled in protest.

“Under no circumstances should the government’s unexplained about-face provide a basis for an extension of its brief,” the firms said in comments Mr. Kambli reported to the court.

The appeals court hadn’t indicated on Tuesday whether it would allow the withdrawal of the motion.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the reversal, and legal analysts were left to wonder what happened behind the scenes.

Mr. Trump had ordered the government to take steps to cancel contracts and security clearances with the four firms, saying they were threats to America’s political order.

District judges ruled against each of those efforts, calling them unconstitutional retaliation.

“This order, like the others, seeks to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the Executive Branch from the judicial check fundamental to the separation of powers,” wrote Judge John Bates, a Trump appointee, in his ruling last May.

The firms involved in the appeal are:

• Jenner & Block, which Mr. Trump targeted for hiring Andrew Weissmann, who was part of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into unfounded claims about the Trump campaign and links to Russia in 2016.

• Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, which employed Mr. Mueller.

• Perkins Coie, which helped orchestrate the salacious and unfounded Steele Dossier that fueled the special counsel’s probe.

• Susman Godfrey, which Mr. Trump said funded “groups that engage in dangerous efforts to undermine the effectiveness of the United States military through the injection of political and radical ideology, and it supports efforts to discriminate on the basis of race.”

Mr. Trump, in his executive orders calling for punishment, also cited the firms’ representation on immigration cases and LGBTQ issues.

The president had also targeted other firms, which struck secret deals.

One firm, Paul, Weiss, was on Mr. Trump’s list because it employed Mark Pomerantz, who assisted a Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into Mr. Trump over hush money paid during the 2016 campaign.

That firm struck a deal to cancel the sanctions in exchange for agreeing to do pro bono work that included “the full spectrum of political viewpoints of our society.”