Susman Godfrey files federal lawsuit against President Trump

HOUSTON – The Dallas Morning News says Texas litigation powerhouse Susman Godfrey filed a federal lawsuit late Friday accusing President Donald Trump of issuing unconstitutional executive orders against it and other law firms. The law firm calls the president’s actions a violation of the rule of law and “a grave threat to this foundational premise of our Republic.” The 66-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleges that President Trump “is abusing the powers of his office” and “is engaged in an unprecedented and unconstitutional assault on those bedrock principles [found in Article I and in the First and Fifth Amendments] and on the independent bar.” “In recent weeks, the president has issued multiple executive orders targeting law firms and their employees in an express campaign of retaliation for representing clients and causes he disfavors or employing lawyers he dislikes,” the lawsuit states, “If a president can with impunity seek to destroy a law firm because of the clients it represents, then the rule of law itself is in grave danger.”

“The executive order makes no secret of its unconstitutional retaliatory and discriminatory intent to punish Susman Godfrey for its work defending the integrity of the 2020 presidential election,” the Houston-based firm states in the complaint. Susman Godfrey served as legal counsel for Dominion in its defamation lawsuit against Fox News and other media outlets, which broadcasted claims by President Trump and his supporters that the Dominion electronic voting machines helped rig the 2020 election. Fox News settled the lawsuit for $787.5 million instead of going to trial. And the very same day that the White House released the executive order against Susman Godfrey, lawyers for the firm won a huge court victory for Dominion in a billion-dollar defamation case against the conservative news channel Newsmax Media in another 2020 presidential election dispute. On Wednesday, President Trump issued an executive order that accuses the firm of “egregious conduct and conflicts of interest” and representing “clients that engage in conduct undermining critical American interests and priorities.” The order by the president suspends “security clearances held by individuals at Susman Godfrey pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.” “Susman spearheads efforts to weaponize the American legal system and degrade the quality of American elections,” President Trump wrote in the executive order. “Susman funds groups that engage in dangerous efforts to undermine the effectiveness of the U.S. military through the injection of political and radical ideology, and it supports efforts to discriminate on the basis of race.”