Fear spreads as Trump targets lawyers and non-profits in ‘authoritarian' takedown

The Guardian

10-04-2025

As Donald Trump dismantles federal agencies, his administration is also creating a chill among non-governmental groups, cowing non-profits, intimidating universities and extracting commitments from law firms to support his aims.
Officials have launched investigations into progressive and climate organizations, colleges and recipients of government grants. Experts worry that if nongovernmental groups are frightened into silence, US democracy may not weather the strain.
'Trump has a strikingly authoritarian instinct,' said Steven Levitsky, a Harvard political science professor who co-authored the book How Democracies Die. 'This is what authoritarians do, they go after civil society,' he added, referring to organizations that exist outside the government and often seek to hold it to account.
Some institutions are caving to the president's demands, or staying quiet about their work in the hope of evading his attention.
But others facing attacks have solidified their resolve, doubling down on their missions and even directly taking on the administration.
'We will continue to vindicate the rights of our clients, and we do so without fear, because we know that we're right,' said attorney Eric Lee, who represents a student facing deportation.
The administration has cracked down in particular on lawyers, especially those who have investigated Trump or represented those who oppose him.
Trump has targeted individual law firms and collectively attacked immigration attorneys, who he alleges engage in 'unscrupulous behavior'. Some Biden-era officials told the Washington Post they have been unable to find representation because of the menacing effect Trump has had on the field. Some law firms have caved to the president's demands, obeying his orders as a way to stay in business.
Paul Weiss agreed to $40m in free legal services to the Trump administration. Willkie Farr & Gallagher committed to spending $100m in pro bono work to causes the firm and Trump support, and Milbank struck a similar deal for $100m in pro bono services.
The onslaught prompted Democratic attorneys general to write a letter to the legal community, saying Trump's goal was to 'deter lawyers from representing politically disfavored clients'.
The American Bar Association (ABA) has rejected the president's attempts to undermine lawyers and the courts, saying in a statement that these actions show a 'clear and disconcerting pattern'.
'If a court issues a decision this administration does not agree with, the judge is targeted,' the statement said. 'If a lawyer represents parties in a dispute with the administration, or if a lawyer represents parties the administration does not like, lawyers are targeted.' After issuing the missive, the association said it was 'targeted' by a Trump official who told lawyers not to attend its meetings.
Eric Lee, a lawyer for Momodou Taal, the British Gambian Cornell University student who faces deportation for participating in a pro-Palestinian demonstration, said it is 'shameful, pathetic, feckless, cowardly' for major law firms and universities to acquiesce to Trump's demands.
It is also 'historically uninformed' to believe giving in to these demands will get an authoritarian to moderate his positions, he said, encouraging lawyers to stand up for their profession.
'We certainly are concerned about what is taking place,' Lee said. 'But what can we do? If we stop fighting, then all is lost.'
Chris Godshall-Bennett, the legal director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said that while the chilling effect is real, he doesn't want people to believe they can't get help. A lot of the attacks are 'bluster', he said, and there are lawyers willing to take a stand.
'We have nothing to be afraid of, compared to the folks that we're trying to help,' he said.
The Trump administration is taking aim at non-profit advocacy groups, particularly if it sees their goals as antithetical to his aims. An array of non-profit employees told the Guardian that they are not willing to speak publicly about their work for fear of ending up on the administration's radar.
Some of the work in question was once seen as bipartisan or noncontroversial but is being treated as radical by the Trump administration, such as alleviating poverty, lowering utility bills or providing people with food.
'I'm worried that the Trump administration is really intent on punishing who they perceive as their political opponents, even when those people, like, us are not at all political,' said one representative from a climate-focused organization, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of garnering attention from federal officials.
Some advocates feel threatened for adhering to principles that were prioritized by the Biden administration.
'Under Biden, we were asked to articulate the ways in which we would be using grant funds to live out environmental justice principles,' a representative from one grassroots non-profit in the north-east said. 'Those are the values that are currently under attack.'
In certain cases, groups who previously received federal money for their work are not only losing their funding, but also being targeted and demonized by administration officials.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for instance, recently decided to terminate green grants worth $20bn, clawing back the money from Citibank, which was tasked with disbursing the funds. The justice department and FBI have launched a criminal investigation into three grantees, alleging possible legal violations including 'conspiracy to defraud the United States'.
Agencies have so far failed to legally support their claims of malfeasance, but have wrought havoc on the groups, with two non-profits exiting one of the coalitions being investigated.
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The three grantees – Climate United Fund, the Coalition for Green Capital and Power Forward Communities – are suing EPA and Citibank in an effort to restore the funding.
The Trump administration's 'unprecedented and unfounded actions' have put grantees 'in impossible positions', said a representative from Power Forward Communities.
Organizations that received grants from Fema's shelter and services program, are also being investigated, raising fear of additional crackdowns.
'They're not arresting people yet who work at non-profits, but everybody's concerned that that is something that they might eventually do,' one person who works at an immigration non-profit told the Guardian.
Many groups also worry that the Trump administration could seek to revoke their non-profit 501c3 status.
In November, the House passed the 'non-profit killer bill', which would hand the executive branch broad powers to do so in the name of fighting 'terrorism'. Many are concerned it will also pass the Senate if put up for a vote. But even in the absence of such legislation, advocates fear the administration will strip non-profits' legal status on technical grounds.
'We're being especially careful to dot our Is and cross our Ts when it comes to meeting [501c3 legal] requirements,' said the north-east environmental justice advocate. The group is ensuring strict adherence to legal lobbying caps, and are being more cautious when using language criticizing the Trump administration – or even using politicized terms such as 'environmental racism' – in written communications, the person said.
If the attacks on 501c3 status come to fruition, non-profits may struggle to find legal representation and, given the attacks on the legal profession, be left to defend themselves in court.
'There are so many organizations and charities that have benefited from the help of law firms, often pro bono assistance from firms that want to do good in their community, and the way they have to do that is through assisting with their legal services,' one non-profit executive told the Guardian. 'The fact that firms now may no longer be able to do that leaves many organizations wondering if we are unprotected.'
Trump's attacks have also forced groups to be more cautious when considering filing or joining lawsuits that would make them more visible to federal officials, a worker at another immigration non-profit said, noting that non-profits' ability to keep their tax legal status may depend on their shying away from their missions.
Universities, which are often hotbeds of progressive politics and dissent, are also facing repression. In early March, the administration announced the cancelation of $400m in grants and loans to Columbia University, alleging the school has failed to protect students from antisemitic harassment. In response, school officials yielded to a series of changes demanded by federal officials, sparking outrage from advocates.
Weeks later, officials went after Harvard University, announcing a plan to review some $9bn in contracts and multiyear grants over accusations that the university also did not protect Jewish students and promoted 'divisive ideologies over free inquiry'. The following day, Princeton University said dozens of its federal research grants were suspended over allegations of the promotion of antisemitism.
The administration also paused $175m in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania over its inclusion of transgender athletes in women's college sports.
'I've studied authoritarianism and authoritarian regimes for more than 30 years [and] authoritarian regimes tend to go after universities because they are usually very influential centers of dissent,' said Harvard's Levitsky, who was among the 700 who signed a letter calling for the university to resist pressure to capitulate to Trump's demands.
The Trump administration also announced a task force on alleged antisemitism at 10 major universities, placed 60 colleges and universities under investigation for allegations of antisemitic harassment and discrimination, and arrested current and former college students for participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Jerry Nadler, a member of Congress from New York, said Trump is taking advantage of 'the real pain American Jews face' in order to 'wield control over the truth-seeking academic institutions that stand as a bulwark against authoritarianism'.
Jason Stanley, a Yale professor who studies fascism, announced in March that he would be leaving the university to work at the University of Toronto, in part because of the US political climate. Columbia University's decision to give in to Trump's demands played a pivotal role in his decision to accept an offer from Toronto, he told the Guardian.
Other academics are more hopeful. Michael Crow, the president of Arizona State University, said he is not giving into pressure because 'if we get intimidated then imagine what happens in the society as a whole'. Instead, the university is attempting to defend itself, showing its record of success on the four dozen projects from which officials have pulled federal funding.
'There is of course concern everywhere,' Crow said, 'but now is the time to make your case stronger than ever'.