Trump Bans Northern Arapaho Tribe's Law Firm From Federal Contracts

President Donald Trump on Tuesday called private law firm Jenner & Block LLP a hub of partisan “lawfare,” and ordered the federal government to stop doing business with the firm wherever practical and lawful.

The president also told all federal agencies to cancel contracts for which the firm has been hired to do any service – a move that may impact the Northern Arapaho Tribe.

The blackballing appears partly tied to the firm’s re-hiring of a former federal prosecutor who worked on the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Jenner & Block started working for the Northern Arapaho Tribe in 2020, according to the firm’s federal lobbying disclosure reports.

The law firm disclosed in those reports more than $580,000 in income from its federal lobbying efforts on the tribe’s behalf alone. The tribe has also hired the firm on litigation matters, including a 2021 challenge by an energy company.

Jenner & Block lobbies Congress and federal agencies on the tribe’s behalf with respect to Indian Health Service funding, housing funding, water infrastructure, Bureau of Indian affairs funding, public health, and other matters.

The order requires federal agencies to report any contracts they keep with “entities that do business with Jenner,” in the name of “align(ing) their agency funding decisions with the interest of the citizens of the United States” and preventing taxpayer dollars from going to the law firm.

The tribe denies that the order implicates its work Jenner, while the tribe’s former lobbyist says it does.

“The administration’s Executive Order is not pertinent to Jenner & Block’s representation of the Northern Arapaho Tribe, and the NABC remains fully satisfied with the firm’s excellent work on our behalf,” the Northern Arapaho Business Council, which is the tribe’s executive branch of government, said in an email on Thursday to Cowboy State Daily.

The tribe said it has other issues with Trump’s maneuvers, however.

Trump’s other executive actions “slash federal funding critical to public education, healthcare, basic infrastructure and other vital services here on the Wind River Reservation, across Wyoming and all of Indian Country,” says the email. “The NABC is focused on defending the Northern Arapaho Tribe and fighting to ensure the federal government lives up to its obligations and promises made to the Arapaho people.” 

Yeah, But…

The tribe’s former lobbyist Mark Howell disagrees that the order doesn’t implicate the tribe.

It targets not just Jenner & Block, but anyone with a federal contract on which the law firm performs work. The first quarter of 2025 is not yet over, but Jenner was reporting lobbying for the tribe on matters in which it also holds federal contracts as recently as Dec. 31, 2024.

“This executive order by President Trump is unfortunate, because it impacts the Northern Arapaho tribe in such a significant way,” said Howell. “Most of their money comes from federal grants and contracts, which will be implicated in this executive order.”

Trump meant to hurt Jenner & Block, but he may be hurting the tribe, Howell added.

When Howell served the tribe about six years ago, the tribe was eligible for about $70 million annually in federal contract money. He said he doesn’t know the current figure, though COVID-19 funding mechanisms could have inflated it.

Jenner & Block did not respond Thursday to a request for comment.

Because Of That Prosecutor

Trump’s order is a broad attack on the firm and emphasizes that Jenner said it was “thrilled” in 2020 to re-hire attorney Andrew Weissmann, who helped to investigate and prosecute Trump starting in 2016.

The order strips the firm of its active security clearances. It calls for the Office of Management and Budget to identify all government goods, properties and services provided for the firm’s benefit – and tells the agencies to “cease such provision” as much as the law allows.

It seeks to prevent taxpayer money from going toward the firm by requiring government contractors to disclose any business they do with Jenner & Block – and whether that business pertains to a government contract. 

How To Buy Your Way Out

Trump on March 14 issued a similar order targeting Paul Weiss, for hiring Mark Pomerantz, another person who helped to prosecute Trump.

Some clients left as a result of Trump’s order, law.com reported.

But Weiss and Trump reached a bargain: Weiss’s firm will commit to providing $40 million in pro bono work for Trump-endorsed causes, and Trump will rescind the order against Weiss. 

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.