Trump And Paul Weiss Law Firm Circulate Different Versions Of Agreement

The chair of the powerhouse legal firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP sent an email to thousands of employees Thursday evening announcing an agreement with the Trump administration: The White House would withdraw an executive order targeting the firm, the chair said, and in return the firm would agree to a series of commitments that he said were consistent with its statement of principles.

“With this behind us, we can devote our complete focus — as we always do — to our clients, our work, our colleagues, and our Firm,” the firm’s chair, Brad Karp, wrote in an email obtained by HuffPost.

But the version of the “agreement” Karp emailed Paul Weiss employees Thursday night is substantially different from the version President Donald Trump posted online. The internal memo is different in several places, leaving out key pledges the White House claims the firm made.

The primary differences are additions in Trump’s version: After the firm commits to merit-based hiring, promotion and retention, Trump’s version adds: “and will not adopt, use, or pursue any DEI policies” — a reference to “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives that Trump has targeted throughout government and the private sector.

Later, Paul Weiss says it will dedicate the equivalent of $40 million for pro bono legal services on various initiatives. The firm’s internal version refers to “these initiatives,” while Trump’s version refers to “the Administration’s initiatives.” Both versions list “assisting our Nation’s veterans, fairness in our justice system, the President’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, and other mutually agreed projects.” (Trump’s version refers to “the Justice System.”)

Finally, Trump’s version includes a statement from the White House, which says, in part, that Karp “acknowledged the wrongdoing of former Paul, Weiss partner, Mark Pomerantz, the grave dangers of Weaponization, and the vital need to restore our System of Justice.”

There’s no version of that sentiment from Karp in the internal version sent to firm employees. Pomerantz left Paul Weiss in 2021 to work with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which eventually filed criminal charges against Trump. That case resulted in the only criminal conviction of the president to date. (Pomerantz told The New York Times on Thursday: “I engaged in no wrongdoing by working as a prosecutor to uphold the rule of law.”)

While the agreements are mostly the same — both say that Paul Weiss will engage “mutually agreed upon” experts to audit its employment practices, for example — the differences between the two versions of the agreement suggest that either a change was made to the agreement by one of its parties, or that both sides arranged for a different version of the “agreement” to be circulated internally at Paul Weiss, versus externally on the president’s social media page.

Neither Paul Weiss nor the White House immediately responded to questions about the multiple discrepancies.

Trump’s targeting of prominent law firms that he says have wronged him personally is now a pattern. He first issued a similar executive order targeting the prominent firm Covington & Burling, instructing the attorney general and others to suspend the security clearances of any employees who assisted Jack Smith — the former special counsel who investigated Trump and brought federal charges against him twice. The order also instructed budget officials to “review all Government contracts” with the firm.

Trump similarly targeted the firm Perkins Coie, which represented Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Rather than reach an agreement with Trump, the firm called the order “an affront to the Constitution.” A federal judge has paused the order, saying if allowed to stand, it would be understood as “an effort to intimidate” attorneys who may advocate on behalf of clients counter to Trump’s interests, NPR reported.

The announcement of an agreement between Paul Weiss and the White House has shaken the legal profession, raising fears about diversity initiatives in hiring and pursuing pro bono work that helps any cause that could be seen as antagonistic toward the administration.

Lawyers saw the agreement Trump announced as Paul Weiss “capitulating to Mr. Trump over an executive order that is likely illegal,” the Times wrote.

The Times was also first to report that “the wording of the statement changed, including a reference to the fact that the firm would ‘not adopt, use, or pursue any DEI policies.’” The paper cited two unnamed sources.

Anna Bower, senior editor at the website Lawfare, independently obtained a copy of the firm’s internal email and its attached agreement, both of which matched HuffPost’s version.

Using the website Diffchecker, it’s easy to see the differences between the two versions of the agreement. (The internal Paul Weiss version is on the left.) Notably, in his email to Paul Weiss employees, Karp referred to his version of the agreement as “the final agreement.” A document he attached with the text of the agreement began with the header “Statement by the White House.”