rump's Extortion-Palooza!

[struggle4progress]

Aug 17, 2025

Every judge who has presided over the lawsuits challenging Donald Trump's executive orders punishing law firms that displease him has ruled that the executive orders are unconstitutional.

What people may not know is those executive orders also violate state extortion laws.

A terrific pro-democracy nonprofit organization called Free Speech For People (FSFP) is doing something about it. FSFP has sent letters (that read more like legal briefs) to the law enforcement authorities in the states where the law firms that Trump extorted are located, urging them to investigate Trump for the crime of extortion.

I recently sat down with Courtney Hostetler, Legal Director for FSFP, to discuss this effort and other FSFP initiatives and projects. In a very real sense, FSFP is fighting to protect we the people from an abusive and criminal president of the United States.

[struggle4progress]

1. Public Interest Group Calls for Criminal Investigations into rump's Extortion of Law Firms

Posted on July 15, 2025

(BOSTON, MA) – Free Speech For People, a national non-profit legal advocacy organization, submitted letters today to the Attorneys General of California, Illinois, and Massachusetts, and the relevant district attorneys in each jurisdiction, to launch criminal investigations into President Donald Trump’s extortion of nearly $1 billion in legal services from at least nine law firms. On June 24, 2025, the organization issued similar letters to state and local prosecutors in New York and Pennsylvania.

Since taking office, Trump has issued a series of executive orders that unlawfully impose a broad range of harms onto certain law firms against whom Trump has developed a personal vendetta because of the firms’ viewpoints, advocacy for clients, and hiring practices. These punishing measures include ending the firm’s government contracts, revoking attorneys’ security clearances, and demanding that government contractors disclose business with these firms and face their own investigations. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also has opened investigations into twenty additional law firms because they maintained lawful diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. The threatened investigations would subject them to onerous proceedings, force them to turn over sensitive employee information to a hostile administration, and leave the firms vulnerable to targeted executive orders in the future.

To obtain recission of the unconstitutional orders or to avoid baseless investigations, firms began to give in to Trump’s demands. He extracted nearly $1 billion in free legal services for himself, his allies, and his pet projects. Trump’s demands infringe on these firms’ independence and will significantly impact and drain their financial resources.

The letters explain that “[t]he extortion of free legal assistance from large law firms is a brazen abuse of power that attacks attorney independence and undermines the adversarial system that is at the heart of our country’s rule of law” ...

https://freespeechforpeople.org/attack-on-the-rule-of-law-public-interest-group-calls-for-criminal-investigations-into-trumps-extortion-of-law-firms-in-california-illinois-and-massachusetts/