Big Law Firms Scrub Mueller Ties as Trump Targets Enemies

Four law firms scrubbed references to their lawyers’ roles in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as President Donald Trump attacks past legal foes.

Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, WilmerHale, Cooley, and Davis Polk & Wardwell removed the references from lawyer bios on their websites late last year and this year, a Bloomberg Law analysis of current and archived firm web pages shows.

The deletions came with Trump’s election to a second term and his determination to settle scores with lawyers and firms he feels wronged by. Trump on March 14 hit Paul Weiss with an executive order restricting government access for the lawyers and clients, though firm chairman Brad Karp Thursday persuaded the president to rescind the directive. Karp agreed to commit $40 million in free legal services to support Trump’s agenda, according to the president’s post on his social media platform.

The four law firms didn’t respond to requests for comment. A review of internet archives shows they scrubbed Mueller references between October and March 20. In Paul Weiss’ case, the archives show the firm changed its lawyer’s webpage after March 1.

Firms’ move to scrub websites of Mueller mentions is a form of “appeasement” when they instead should be defending their lawyers’ ability to work on cases that are adverse to Trump, said Liz Oyer, a former pardons attorney at the Justice Department who was terminated earlier this month.

Law firms are “ceding some ground to stay out of the crosshairs of the Trump administration, and I think that’s a very dangerous phenomenon,” Oyer said.

Mueller, a veteran federal prosecutor who headed the FBI for 12 years, was assigned in 2017 by deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein to investigate Russian state influence in the 2016 presidential election and coordination with the Trump campaign. The investigation concluded there was no coordination but it led to the conviction of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort for bank fraud and conspiracy against the United States.

The allegations of Russian involvement have been the basis of longstanding complaints from Trump, who has referred derisively to the Mueller probe using terms such as “witch hunt” and “Russia, Russia, Russia.” He cited the allegations of coordination between his campaign and Russia in a March 6 executive order targeting law firm Perkins Coie as a national security risk. A former partner at Perkins Coie was involved with opposition research that also alleged Russian influence.

WilmerHale and Cooley on March 17 received letters from Trump’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission saying their diversity programs were being investigated.

Paul Weiss, WilmerHale

Paul Weiss this month removed mention of Mueller from partner L. Rush Atkinson’s biography, archived webpages show.

Atkinson, who joined the firm in 2024 after a 12-year tenure at the Justice Department, served as assistant special counsel to Mueller. Prior to March 1, his firm webpage described that role.

WilmerHale, where Mueller practiced as a partner before retiring in 2021, removed Mueller’s biography page between November and March, a review of archived webpages shows. WilmerHale is one of 20 firms targeted in an EEOC investigation into diversity programs at law firms.

This year, WilmerHale also removed the mention of Mueller’s investigation from the webpage of retired partner James Quarles III, who rejoined the firm with Mueller in 2019 after service in the special counsel’s office.

WilmerHale partner Aaron Zebley’s biography has also been edited. During his service as Mueller’s deputy special counsel from 2017 to 2019, Zebley was responsible for “managing the day-to-day operation of the office and supervising all investigation and prosecution matters,” his profile on the firm’s website said in December. He also oversaw the “writing, publication, and delivery” of the investigation’s final report.

Davis Polk, Cooley

This year, Davis Polk revised webpages of Greg Andres, co-head of the firm’s white collar defense and investigations practice, and white collar partner Uzo Asonye to omit references to the Mueller probe. The firm highlighted their role on Mueller’s investigative team and prosecution of Manafort in previous iterations. The pair left the special counsel’s office in 2019 to join Davis Polk, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

Cooley removed a paragraph from the profile of white collar partner Andrew Goldstein, who was formerly referred to by Cooley’s website as one of Mueller’s “top deputies” in the special counsel’s office. His page previously highlighted a front-page story by The New York Times that described his “day-to-day” leadership role.

The EEOC sent letters to 20 large firms, including Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Ropes & Gray, and Simpson Thacher, launching investigations for possible discrimination in their diversity programs. Trump three days earlier issued an executive order against Paul Weiss that stripped the Wall Street firm of security clearances and threatened to cancel government contracts held by its clients, while ordering agency heads to restrict its lawyers’ access to federal government buildings.

The Paul Weiss order referenced Mark Pomerantz, a former firm partner who led a Manhattan district attorney’s investigation that resulted in convictions against Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Trump’s March 6 executive order targeting Perkins Coie was similar to the one issued against Paul Weiss. It mentioned that Perkins Coie in 2016, while working for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, “hired Fusion GPS, which then manufactured a false ‘dossier’ designed to steal an election.” Trump also noted the firm’s work on a bevy of elections cases.

Trump’s Feb. 25 memo against Covington & Burling targeted partner Peter Koski, citing his relationship with former special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two criminal cases against the president.