#Trump’s $1 Billion Law Firm Deals Are the Work of His Personal Lawyer
#BorisEpshteyn, who doesn’t work for the #US government, has *negotiated* with a series of #LawFirms to cajole them into entering deals
Trump has reached around $1 billion in deals with the country’s top law firms in the past month, using the full weight of his presidency to threaten their business.
#law #extortion #criminal
https://archive.is/2025.04.14-090329/https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/trumps-1-billion-law-firm-deals-are-the-work-of-his-personal-lawyer-77bd7b8c
![Heather Cox Richardson Mob Boss Extortion 4/3/2025
Dayen writes that Trump's tariffs are essentially sanctions on the rest of the world. His behavior is, Dayen says, “no different from a mob boss moving into town and sending his thugs to every business on Main Street, roughing up the proprietors and asking for protection money so they don't get pushed out of business.” Dayen notes that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued last year for using the extraordinary power of the U.S. economy to force other countries to do as the U.S. wants, creating a U.S. sphere of influence through economic pressure.
Extending the comparison to a mob boss, Dayen notes that “protection money"” could take many forms: “curbing migration, taking in more U.S. farm exports or weapons systems, reducing industrial capacity in China and forcing more consumption, buying long-dated U.S. debt on the cheap, siding with a war strategy against Iran, literally anything the White House wants.”
Trump's son Eric appeared to confirm that the tariffs are a shakedown : “I wouldn't want to be the last country that tries to negotiate a trade deal with [T]. The first to negotiate will win—the last will absolutely lose. | have seen this movie my entire life....” Foreign affairs journalist David Rothkopf was more graphic: “These aren't tariffs,” he wrote. “They are a horse’s head in the bed of (almost) every world government and business leader.”](https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/114/280/246/909/734/612/original/55a5e555b4a5b4f1.jpeg "Heather Cox Richardson Mob Boss Extortion 4/3/2025
Dayen writes that Trump's tariffs are essentially sanctions on the rest of the world. His behavior is, Dayen says, “no different from a mob boss moving into town and sending his thugs to every business on Main Street, roughing up the proprietors and asking for protection money so they don't get pushed out of business.” Dayen notes that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued last year for using the extraordinary power of the U.S. economy to force other countries to do as the U.S. wants, creating a U.S. sphere of influence through economic pressure.
Extending the comparison to a mob boss, Dayen notes that “protection money\"” could take many forms: “curbing migration, taking in more U.S. farm exports or weapons systems, reducing industrial capacity in China and forcing more consumption, buying long-dated U.S. debt on the cheap, siding with a war strategy against Iran, literally anything the White House wants.”
Trump's son Eric appeared to confirm that the tariffs are a shakedown : “I wouldn't want to be the last country that tries to negotiate a trade deal with [T]. The first to negotiate will win—the last will absolutely lose. | have seen this movie my entire life....” Foreign affairs journalist David Rothkopf was more graphic: “These aren't tariffs,” he wrote. “They are a horse’s head in the bed of (almost) every world government and business leader.”")