Lawyers at multiple firms who’ve worked for the president or his campaign are shunning Trump, at least when it comes to donations.
Reuters reported that attorneys at four firms that have worked for Trump or his campaign donated “overwhelmingly” to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Attorneys at the Jones Day law firm, which has collected $4.5 million for its work for the Trump campaign, contributed just $50 to the president’s reelection efforts but gave $90,000 to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Lawyers at Porter Wright, which was paid more than $250,000 to represent the Trump campaign in lawsuits over Pennsylvania’s balloting measures, donated nothing to Trump and $5,750 to the Biden campaign, Reuters reported, citing FEC data in both cases.
The money represents contributions from individual attorneys at each firm, and not the firms themselves.
According to Reuters, it’s a trend throughout the industry, with attorneys contributing $29 million to the Biden war chest versus $1.75 million to Trump over the first eight months of the year.
That was also the case in 2016. An analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics found attorneys had donated $36.4 million to the campaign of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, compared with just $942,000 to Trump.
The trend predates Trump: In 2012, President Barack Obama received $27.7 million from lawyers and law firms compared with $14.3 million given to Mitt Romney from those same groups, per Open Secrets.
A 2017 analysis by the Harvard Kennedy School showed that 68 percent of lawyers who make political contributions gave more money to Democrats than to Republicans.