MAKE IT MAKE SENSE: Breaking the law

Donald Trump bent big law firms to his will -- do the Epstein files show why they were so flexible?

In today’s letter: When big law firms folded under pressure from Trump a year ago, was it because they were already rotting from within? The latest batch of Jeffrey Epstein emails offers some clues.

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A year ago, just after Donald Trump took office, he issued a series of executive orders targeting big law firms, many of which had partners and employees who’d been involved in cases against him. The first to capitulate to the administration’s shakedown was Paul, Weiss.

At the time, Paul, Weiss chairman Brad. S. Karp said that he’d had no choice — the firm, he wrote to his staff in March of 2025, “would not be able to survive a protracted dispute with the administration.”

This week, Karp resigned after his name came up repeatedly in the latest batch of Epstein emails.