The orders also may represent exceptional acts of retribution against lawyers who have crossed him in the past, they said.

Former President Trump said during an interview Sunday with FNC's Maria Bartiromo that his executive order stripping security clearance and government contracts from Perkins Coie, a DNC-aligned law firm that worked with the Clinton campaign on the Steele dossier,

Many big corporate law firms are declining to help with public criticism and legal opposition to the second Trump administration, in the wake of executive orders punishing law firms with Democratic ties.