Trump Administration Lawyers Made Their Careers at the Firms Trump Is Now Punishing

The president has fixated on a set of law firms that have given him trouble in the past. He’s also hired many lawyers who’ve benefited from working for them.

Donald Trump Todd Blanche
Dave Sanders/AP

When President Donald Trump singled out specific white-shoe law firms for political retribution, he knew he was targeting some of the most top-notch legal professionals.

After all, so many of them work for him now.

Four counselors in the White House started their careers at the law firms Trump has tried to punish by barring them from government contracts and stripping lawyers of security clearances. Trump has appointed at least three senior-level executives at federal agencies who carry the same pedigree. And two of the most prominent attorneys at the Department of Justice developed their credentials at these firms too, with one spending years at a place Trump now claims “should not have access to our nation’s secrets.”