In a dramatic shift that underscores the intensifying political pressure facing America’s top legal institutions, four major law firms have quietly erased references to their attorneys’ involvement in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The move, discovered through a Bloomberg Law analysis of current and archived web pages, comes amid a wave of aggressive executive actions from President Donald Trump aimed at punishing perceived political opponents—including high-powered lawyers and their firms.
Law Firms Under the Microscope: Paul Weiss, WilmerHale, Cooley, and Davis Polk Purge Mueller Mentions
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, WilmerHale, Cooley, and Davis Polk & Wardwell are among the elite legal giants that removed references to attorneys’ roles in the Mueller investigation from firm bios between late 2024 and March 2025. The timing aligns with Trump’s return to the White House and his escalating efforts to target firms connected to past legal threats, investigations, and opposition.
President Trump’s March 14 executive order against Paul Weiss marked a new phase in his war on legal adversaries, stripping the firm’s lawyers of federal building access and threatening clients’ government contracts. Although firm chairman Brad Karp succeeded in negotiating a rescission of the order—reportedly by committing $40 million in pro bono legal services to support Trump’s policy agenda—the chilling message was received loud and clear across the legal community.
Archived versions of the firms’ websites show that mentions of Mueller-era service were wiped in a quiet but coordinated fashion, with deletions occurring between October 2024 and March 2025. In Paul Weiss’s case, changes were confirmed as recently as early March.
Fear, Compliance, or Strategy? The Ethics of “Appeasement”
Legal ethics experts are raising alarm bells about what this trend means for the independence and integrity of the legal profession. Liz Oyer, a former Justice Department pardons attorney who was terminated earlier this month, called the firms’ actions “a form of appeasement.”
“These law firms are ceding ground in order to stay out of the crosshairs of the Trump administration,” Oyer said. “That’s a very dangerous phenomenon. Attorneys should not be punished—or feel the need to hide—for taking on work that was entirely legal, appropriate, and in the public interest.”
Indeed, the Mueller probe—led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller under the Department of Justice’s Special Counsel regulations—produced convictions of Trump allies including Paul Manafort and uncovered extensive Russian interference in the 2016 election, even if no criminal conspiracy with the Trump campaign was established.
Trump, however, has relentlessly attacked the probe as a politically motivated “witch hunt,” and has made it clear that he sees Mueller’s former team—and those associated with them—as fair game.
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Law Firms Backpedal: Scrubbing Biographies and Downplaying Credentials
Paul Weiss
Paul Weiss, long known for its progressive pro bono work and Democratic ties, removed references to partner L. Rush Atkinson’s service as an assistant special counsel under Mueller. Atkinson joined the firm in 2024 after more than a decade at the DOJ, including his time on the Mueller team. The firm deleted that experience from his online biography after March 1, 2025.
The firm was also specifically called out in a March 14 executive order citing former partner Mark Pomerantz’s role in the Manhattan DA’s case against Trump, which resulted in 34 felony convictions. Trump’s order not only revoked security clearances for Paul Weiss lawyers but also warned of contract cancellations for its clients.
WilmerHale
WilmerHale, the former professional home of Robert Mueller himself, erased the special counsel’s biography page between November 2024 and March 2025. It also removed mentions of the investigation from the bios of key alumni like retired partner James Quarles III, who joined the firm in 2019 after working with Mueller, and current partner Aaron Zebley, Mueller’s former deputy.
Zebley’s biography had previously described his role in managing the day-to-day operations of the Mueller investigation and overseeing the final report. That language has since been removed.
Davis Polk
At Davis Polk, revisions were made to the profiles of Greg Andres and Uzo Asonye—both central figures in the Mueller investigation. The firm once proudly highlighted their roles on the Mueller team, including the prosecution of Manafort. By early 2025, those references had disappeared from the firm’s site.
Cooley
Cooley also sanitized its website, deleting a paragraph from partner Andrew Goldstein’s biography. Previously touted as one of Mueller’s “top deputies,” Goldstein was featured in a New York Times front-page story lauding his day-to-day leadership of the probe. That accolade is no longer visible on Cooley’s site.
Broader Legal Fallout: Diversity Programs and Political Retaliation
The Mueller-related deletions are not isolated incidents—they’re part of a larger Trump-led offensive against the legal establishment. On March 17, both WilmerHale and Cooley received letters from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announcing investigations into their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
The EEOC’s move is part of a broader crackdown. On March 6, Trump signed an executive order targeting the law firm Perkins Coie, labeling its work on the so-called Steele dossier and election-related cases a “national security risk.” Perkins Coie, a prominent Democratic firm, had previously hired Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research on Trump in 2016—research that fueled ongoing claims of foreign interference.
In a separate February 25 memo, the White House also attacked Covington & Burling for its work with Special Counsel Jack Smith, citing Covington partner Peter Koski’s alleged connections to the Smith investigation that led to Trump’s two federal indictments.
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The Chilling Effect: What It Means for BigLaw and American Democracy
The growing trend of politically motivated executive orders and regulatory investigations into elite law firms represents a stark departure from traditional norms of legal independence. Legal professionals, once confident in their ability to take on controversial or politically sensitive cases, are increasingly finding themselves caught in the crossfire of Trump’s retribution strategy.
Firms may be hoping to sidestep punitive measures by scrubbing their lawyers’ bios and minimizing ties to high-profile investigations. However, critics argue that such moves only embolden authoritarian tendencies and undermine the profession’s duty to uphold the rule of law, regardless of political winds.
As Trump’s second term intensifies its focus on political “score-settling,” law firms across the country face a dangerous choice: stand by the principles of legal neutrality and risk retaliation, or fall in line and erase the past.
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