Fox News is apparently ignoring a Trump executive order targeting the law firm that represented Dominion Voting Systems

The network has acknowledged Trump’s executive orders targeting other law firms such as Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling

Written by Chloe Simon & Harrison Ray

Published

​On April 9, President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting the law firm Susman Godfrey LLP, which represented Dominion Voting Systems in its $787.5 million defamation lawsuit against Fox News over false claims about the 2020 election and Dominion’s voting machines. Although the network did cover other law firms attacked by Trump, Fox has apparently yet to report on the executive order targeting Susman Godfrey, according to a Media Matters review. 

According to The Guardian, Trump’s executive order “seeks to harm” the law practice by “limiting its attorneys from accessing government buildings, revoking security clearances and essentially making it impossible for it to represent anyone who has business before the federal government.” The Trump administration accused Susman Godfrey of “spearhead[ing] efforts to weaponize the American legal system” and having engaged in discriminatory practices through diversity initiatives. (Disclaimer: Susman Godfrey is currently representing Media Matters in various legal matters.)

Fox News has apparently yet to mention Trump’s executive order targeting Susman Godfrey 

Since Trump signed the executive order targeting Susman Godfrey on April 9, it appears that no Fox News personalities, guests, or reporters have discussed the order or the law firm on air. 

In April 2023, Fox News settled a lawsuit with Susman Godfrey’s client Dominion Voting Systems for nearly $800 million over the network’s false claims alleging fraud in the 2020 election. In a statement made following the settlement, Fox claimed to “acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.” 

Despite its apparent silence on the executive order targeting Susman Godfrey, the network did highlight orders targeting other law firms

Although the Susman Godfrey executive order seems not to have been a topic of conversation on Fox News, several of Trump’s executive orders targeting other law firms have been discussed and acknowledged on the network. Law firms targeted by the Trump administration such as Perkins Coie, Covington & Burling, Jenner & Block, and Willkie Farr & Gallagher all received mentions by Fox guests and personalities. 

In an April 6 segment discussing Trump’s executive orders targeting the various law firms, MediaBuzz host Howard Kurtz asked Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy, “Well, since these are either Democratic firms or firms that have or have had, to your point, lawyers involved with past investigations of President Trump, does it create the appearance that he's pursuing grievances?” McCarthy responded, “I think it’s more than the appearance. It’s the obvious reality that he’s doing so,” adding that “the pattern that you're seeing again and again is that the Trump administration thinks that it's allowed to achieve an objective in the end that it doesn't have to comply with constitutional requirements or due process in order to get from point A to point B, and we just don't do that in this country — at least we didn’t used to.” 

Perkins Coie 

In her March 9 interview with Trump, Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo teed the president up to highlight his executive order targeting Perkins Coie, saying, “Mr. President, I just saw you sign executive orders for law firms. One of the law firms was Perkins Coie? Yeah, that was the law firm that had the Steele dossier.” 

As a guest on The Big Weekend Show, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said of Trump’s executive order targeting Perkins Coie, “This is all part of President Trump's plan to shut down weaponized law enforcement. Perkins Coie, as has been well-documented and established, was at the center of the Russia collusion hoax." 

Another Fox News guest, Washington Times correspondent Susan Ferrechio, discussed the order against Perkins Coie, claiming on MediaBuzz, “The Perkins [Coie] law firm, don't forget, was — played a significant role in producing the Steele dossier, which came to dominate and disrupt the, you know, the president's first term, and may have cost him his first election if it had gotten out there earlier. So there are reasons why he's doing this.” 

Fox News correspondent David Spunt described the order against Perkins Coie, highlighting the law firm as being “known for ties to [Hillary] Clinton, eventually the Steele dossier.”

Covington & Burling

Fox News host Jesse Watters praised Trump for “disarming Democrats’ biggest weapon — lawfare,” and “ban[ning] law firms that launder Democrat hoaxes from working with the government and yank[ing] security clearances for lawyers that helped [former special counsel] Jack Smith," apparently referring to Covington & Burling. 

David Spunt also reported on Trump’s memorandum targeting Covington & Burling, which represents Jack Smith, in a segment framed around the Trump administration and House GOP’s campaign against the supposed “weaponization” of the Justice Department.

Jenner & Block 

In a report on Trump’s executive order targeting law firm Jenner & Block, Fox News correspondent Brooke Singman described the order as “sanctioning” the law firm whose clients are “challenging some of his major policies.” 

Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Fox News anchor Shannon Bream reported on the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher becoming “the latest major law firm to enter into one of these settlements with the White House,” adding, “By the way, former Vice President Kamala Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, happens to be a partner at this firm.”