A federal judge used President Donald Trump's own boastful words against him to halt an executive order that took aim at a major Washington, D.C., law firm, reported MSNBC.
U.S. Judge Beryl Howell issued a permanent injunction to blockTrump from retaliating against Perkins Coie due to the president's political grievances. Trump's order had limited Perkins Coie lawyers' "access to government buildings, revoked their security clearances and ordered federal agencies to terminate contracts with the firm."
But Judge Howell found that the Trump administration had "singled out Perkins Coie based on the content of its speech and actions," which infringed up on the firm and its attorneys' First Amendment rights.
To make her ruling, Howell did something "unusual," according to MSNBC. She "used Trump’s subsequent agreements with other firms — and his boasts about them — as evidence against his administration."
Perkins Coie was one of six law firms Trump targeted for representing his "political opponents or whose lawyers were involved in investigations into the president during his first term," MSNBC reported.
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Howell cited a Trump quote from an April event, when he claimed "Have you noticed that lots of law firms have been signing up with Trump? $100 million, another $100 million, for damages that they’ve done. But they give you $100 million and then they announce, ‘We have done nothing wrong.’ And I agree, they’ve done nothing wrong. But what the hell, they’ve given me a lot of money considering they’ve done nothing wrong."
Howell also cited advisor Stephen Miller's remarks regarding the law firm Susman Godfrey."Trump asked Miller to share the value of free legal work secured from the deals with other law firms. 'The numbers are adding up. We’re going to be close to a billion soon,' Miller replied."
"The government’s promotion of those deals provided Howell with further evidence that President Trump was clearly singling out firms for retribution based on whether they entered agreements with the administration or not," the report said.