A lawyer for the Ministry of Justice said on Thursday before the Federal Court that he did not know if President Donald Trump had written agreements with large law firms beyond what he had shared online.
“I do not know anything beyond the information generally accessible to the public,” said Richard Lawson when the American district judge Loren Alikhan questioned written agreements.
Despite the representation of the Trump administration in court, Lawson said he knew nothing beyond the “press releases” on transactions.
“I do not know any other document than this,” he said. “It doesn’t say there is none, but I don’t know any other.”
Nine large law firms have concluded agreements with Trump, promising a total of almost a billion dollars in pro-good hours towards its political priorities. At the same time, companies have avoided the decrees of management targeting them.
Thursday’s hearing in a Washington Federal Tribunal, DC, exceeded a trial brought by Susman Godfrey, one of the four law firms to receive Trump’s hard executive decrees.
Trump published an executive decree in April which would have stripped the lawyers of Susman Godfrey of security authorizations, reduces the company of government contracts and potentially prohibited to lawyers for courthouses, post offices and other government buildings.
Alikhan quickly issued a temporary prohibition prescription blocking the implementation of Trump command and weighed on Thursday if it would block them permanently.
For the nine companies that have concluded agreements with Trump, the terms seem vague.
The social messages of Trump’s truth announcing each agreement represent only 400 words. They do not specify the time horizons for pro bono donations, which makes it difficult to work that companies will contribute during the rest of Trump’s mandate. And they do not include any details on the requirements to declare promises that companies have made on various hiring practices.
Bloomberg Law reported earlier in May on copies of the written agreements between the White House and four law firms: Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and A & O Shearman. These written agreements do not include any specific details on how they comply with transactions, depending on the point of sale.
The four firms also concluded agreements with the American Committee on Employment Opportunities, whose president sent letters to 20 law firms to find out about their diversity practices. The external lawyer of the four companies said they would subject “confidential written certification” every four months until the end of Trump’s mandate, according to Bloomberg Law.
Asked about the written agreements, a spokesperson for the EEOC told Business Insider: “We have nothing for you.”
Neither the White House nor the nine law firms which concluded agreements with Trump offered information on the potential underlying agreements.
Representatives of the White House did not respond to requests for comments on transactions.
None of the nine companies that have concluded agreements have responded to requests for comments on the written agreements with Trump.
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