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Left: President-elect Donald Trump on “Meet the Press” Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024 (NBC News/YouTube). Right: U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announces lawsuit against New York’s immigration policies from Washington, D.C. on Feb. 12, 2025 (YouTube).
President Donald Trump handed down orders to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday directing federal law enforcement to go after lawyers and law firms that challenge his administration with “frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation.”
The White House issued a memo late Friday announcing Trump’s memorandum, which was titled, “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court.” In it, the Trump administration warns that lawyers and firms engaging in actions that violate the laws of the United States or rules governing attorney conduct “must be efficiently and effectively held accountable.”
“Accountability is especially important when misconduct by lawyers and law firms threatens our national security, homeland security, public safety, or election integrity,” the memo states. An example of “grossly unethical misconduct” is included in the memorandum, with Trump administration officials claiming it’s “far too common.”
“For instance, in 2016, Marc Elias, founder and chair of Elias Law Group LLP, was deeply involved in the creation of a false ‘dossier’ by a foreign national designed to provide a fraudulent basis for Federal law enforcement to investigate a Presidential candidate in order to alter the outcome of the Presidential election,” the memo alleges. “Elias also intentionally sought to conceal the role of his client — failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — in the dossier.”
According to the White House memo, Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem have both been instructed to weigh legal action for “ethical misconduct” committed by junior attorneys to “partners or the law firm when appropriate.” It says when the attorney general determines conduct by an attorney or law firm in litigation against the Trump administration “warrants seeking sanctions or other disciplinary action” the attorney general shall — in consultation with “any relevant senior executive official” — recommend to the president additional steps that may be taken. This includes “reassessment of security clearances” held by the lawyers in question or termination of any federal contract for which the relevant attorney or law firm has been hired to perform services.
“I further direct the Attorney General, in consultation with any relevant senior executive official, to review conduct by attorneys or their law firms in litigation against the Federal Government over the last 8 years,” the memo says.
“If the Attorney General identifies misconduct that may warrant additional action, such as filing frivolous litigation or engaging in fraudulent practices, the Attorney General is directed to recommend to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, additional steps that may be taken,” the order adds.
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Trump’s memo notes “Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 prohibits attorneys from engaging in certain unethical conduct in Federal courts.” Specifically, it states that attorneys must not present legal filings “for improper purpose[s]” — including “to harass, cause unnecessary delay, or needlessly increase the cost of litigation,” the memo says.
“Unfortunately, far too many attorneys and law firms have long ignored these requirements when litigating against the Federal Government or in pursuing baseless partisan attacks,” the order claims. “To address these concerns, I hereby direct the Attorney General to seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation against the United States or in matters before executive departments and agencies of the United States.”
Trump’s reasoning for involving Noem is that the immigration system is likewise “replete with examples of unscrupulous behavior” being shown by attorneys and law firms challenging Trump, the document says.
The memo claims the “immigration bar” and “powerful Big Law” pro bono practices frequently “coach clients to conceal their past or lie about their circumstances” when asserting asylum claims. The White House condemns it as an attempt to “circumvent immigration policies” and “deceive the immigration authorities and courts” into granting them relief that is “undeserved” and not needed.
The memo says, “Gathering the necessary information to refute these fraudulent claims imposes an enormous burden on the Federal Government. And this fraud in turn undermines the integrity of our immigration laws and the legal profession more broadly — to say nothing of the undeniable, tragic consequences of the resulting mass illegal immigration, whether in terms of heinous crimes against innocent victims like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, or Rachel Morin, or the enormous drain on taxpayer resources intended for Americans.”
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Legal experts, prosecutors and former Justice Department officials have called out the Trump administration for issuing the Friday order. Former Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, who served in the Obama and Biden administrations, told The Washington Post she believed the memo was a dangerous threat to the judicial system.
“I have both sued and defended the government with equal vigor,” Gupta said. “This presidential memorandum attacks the very foundations of our legal system by threatening and intimidating litigants who aim to hold our government accountable to the law and the Constitution.”
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin blasted the memo as “an unprecedented and frankly outrageous attempt to threaten lawyers simply for doing their jobs” — saying, “The president has consistently violated the law and hurt our residents in very real and direct ways — cutting their healthcare, denying their kids a quality education, and making them less safe. No baseless threat will stop me from doing my job, which is to protect my state from harm.”
Sue Hendrickson, president and CEO of the nonprofit rights organization Human Rights First, told the Post she felt the new memo was aimed at silencing Trump’s legal opposition directly.
“This policy is likely to go after cases that are opposed to [Trump’s] political views versus cases that are meritless,” Hendrickson said. “It was clear that [Trump] has had difficulty controlling the judges with lifetime appointments and now is going after the legal systems and the lawyers who are representing individuals in cases and in connection with immigration cases, asylum cases and efforts to protect due process and the First Amendment.”
Attempts by Law&Crime to reach the Trump administration for comment Sunday were unsuccessful.
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