‘Trump Appears Confused Here’: President Raises Eyebrows by Switching Who’s Suing Whom in Angry Post About Law Firm

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

President Donald Trump frequently fires up his Truth Social account to lob attacks at his opponents, but one post on Wednesday morning left readers scratching their heads over an apparent flipping of roles.

Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has issued a series of executive orders targeting by name multiple BigLaw firms that represented prominent Democratic clients like Hillary Clinton, refused to represent him or other pro-MAGA causes, hired former federal prosecutors that investigated him, or worked on the criminal cases he was facing before he won re-election.

The president’s social media posts and executive orders often lambast these firms using language accusing them of being “dishonest” and a “dangerous” risk to national security. The sanctions he has sought to impose include stripping the security clearances of the firms’ attorneys and staff (critically important for certain types of federal legal cases), terminating contracts the firms had with federal agencies, barring the firms’ employees from federal buildings (again, a major obstacle for the lawyers to represent their clients), demanding firms abolish diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and programs, and threatening additional civil and criminal investigations against the firms.

Despite the firms’ advantages of rosters full of top-ranked attorneys with Ivy League law degrees and billions of dollars in annual revenue, a growing number have decided to cave, offering swift compliance with Trump’s decrees and hundreds of millions of dollars of pro bono legal work to appease the president.

A handful of law firms have dug in their white-shoed heels and refusing to yield, even filing lawsuits to defend their rights, including Perkins Coie, which filed a complaint against the Trump administration seeking to enjoin the enforcement of of the president’s executive order against the firm as a violation of their First Amendment and due process rights.

Wednesday morning, Trump posted the following on his Truth Social account:

I’m suing the law firm of Perkins Coie for their egregious and unlawful acts, in particular the conduct of a specific member of this firm, only to find out that the Judge assigned to this case is Beryl Howell, an Obama appointment, and a highly biased and unfair disaster. She ruled against me in the past, in a shocking display of sick judicial temperament, on a case that ended up working out very well for me, on appeal. Her ruling was so pathologically bad that it became the “talk of the town.” I could have a 100% perfect case and she would angrily rule against me. It’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome, and she’s got a bad case of it. To put it nicely, Beryl Howell is an unmitigated train wreck. NO JUSTICE!!!

Setting aside the president’s insults for the judge, he is not suing Perkins Coie in any case that is before Judge Beryl Howell; she is the judge assigned to Perkins Coie’s lawsuit against his administration.

Politico senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney pointed this out in a tweet, noting that Trump had sued the firm in a lawsuit filed in Florida that has not gone favorably for the president.

“Trump appears confused here,” wrote Cheney. “He is suing Perkins Coie in Florida in a case before Judge Middlebrooks that has been dismissed and resulted in sanctions against him and Alina Habba.”

“Perkins Coie is suing HIM before Judge Howell over his retaliatory executive order,” Cheney added.

The complaint Trump filed against Perkins Coie also named as defendants Hillary Clinton, her campaign manager John Podesta, the Democratic National Committee, former FBI officials, and ex-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele.

Judge John Middlebrooks in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida dismissed Trump’s complaint with prejudice, meaning that it was so deficient on its face it was not permitted to be amended and refiled.

Middlebrooks also imposed sanctions of nearly $938,000 against Trump and his attorney Alina Habba in a scathing order that that eviscerated the lawsuit as one that “should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose.”