Democrats Investigating Law Firms Over Work for Trump's Commerce Dept.

Source: New York Times

Sept. 24, 2025, 12:13 p.m. ET


Top House and Senate Democrats are investigating whether law firms that cut deals with President Trump earlier this year — including Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison — are breaking the law by doing free legal work for his administration, according to letters sent to the firms on Wednesday.

The letters were sent a month after The New York Times reported that two firms — Paul Weiss, and Kirkland and Ellis — had started free legal work for the Commerce Department. The firms had both struck agreements with Mr. Trump in which they committed to doing pro bono legal work for causes Mr. Trump has championed.

The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, signed the letters along with Senators Adam Schiff of California and the ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. The letters said that the work the firms were doing for the Commerce Department suggested “that the administration’s coercion of your law firm may be ongoing and escalating.”

The letter asked the firms to respond to a series of questions, including giving a description of the work they are doing for the department and the pro bono work they are doing as part of the deals they cut with Mr. Trump. But because the Democrats are in the minority in both houses, and do not have subpoena power, they cannot force the firms to respond. The firms and a spokesman for the Commerce Department did not respond to requests for comment.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/us/politics/democrats-law-firms-trump-investigation.html