Senator Blumenthal: Week in Review 4/4/2025-4/11/2025
Defending the Rule of Law
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), and U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, pressed the White House and six top law firms for answers about deals struck with the Trump Administration to avoid executive orders targeting firms for representing clients and hiring lawyers President Donald Trump dislikes. In letters sent earlier this week to White House Counsel David Warrington; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (Paul, Weiss); Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (Skadden Arps); Sullivan & Cromwell LLP (S&C); Kirkland & Ellis LLP (Kirkland); Milbank LLP; and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP (Willkie) Blumenthal and Raskin called on the White House and each firm to preserve all records pertaining to Trump’s executive orders.
In their letter to the White House, Blumenthal and Raskin wrote, “Over the past few weeks, in five executive orders targeting and punishing specific law firms, President Trump took aim at these firms for representing clients and advocating for causes that he abhors. He has attempted to punish the firms by revoking their attorneys’ security clearances, preventing them from entering any federal buildings, and even seeking to terminate any government contracts they have and preventing them from future government employment. The retaliatory nature of these executive orders has not been even tacitly disguised—each of the five orders detailed his personal grievances which led to its issuance.”
In a letter to Paul, Weiss Chairman Brad S. Karp, Blumenthal and Raskin wrote, “The March 14, 2025 Executive Order aimed at Paul, Weiss is part of a broader effort by President Trump to use the powers of the presidency to intimidate and silence his perceived enemies. The Courts that have considered these vendetta orders to date have universally ruled against them and noted that they violate the First Amendment right to free speech as they are plainly ‘retaliatory action’ meant to ‘chill[] speech and legal advocacy,’ and that they violate the right to counsel guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment by banning the targeted firms’ lawyers from federal buildings and terminating their clients’ government contracts.”
The full text of Blumenthal and Raskin’s letter to the White House is available here. Letters sent to Paul, Weiss, Skadden Arps, S&C, Kirkland, Milbank, and Willkie are available here.
Blumenthal joined a spotlight hearing entitled, “Restoring Accountability: Exposing Attacks on the Rule of Law.” The hearing—hosted by U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Raskin—examined recent actions taken by Trump to erode Americans’ civil liberties and the country’s democratic values, including targeting private law firms to block causes or individuals he dislikes from securing legal representation.
“Donald Trump hammers, bullies, intimidates, and then offers to negotiate. He’s doing it with law firms, he’s done it with universities, he’s doing it with countries and companies through tariffs. It is part of a slide toward tyranny. Tim Snyder, my friend, a professor at Yale, has said the first rule of tyranny from the 20th century, the first lesson is do not obey in advance. That is what Skadden Arps, Milbank, and Willkie Farr have done. They didn’t even wait for the executive order. They obeyed in advance,” Blumenthal said at the hearing.
Blumenthal continued, “And I just want to make really clear what is most offensive to me. They acceded, in effect, to allow Donald Trump to tell them who their clients would be and who they would hire. I’ve been a United States Attorney, in Connecticut, I was Attorney General for 20 years, but I’ve also been in private practice, and if there’s one thing that matters to me as a trial lawyer—and I still consider myself proudly a trial lawyer—it is nobody tells me what to do.”
A video of Blumenthal’s remarks can be found here.
With an accompanying video on Twitter/X, Blumenthal further called out Trump’s assault on the rule of law and democratic values through his pressuring of major law firms.
“Trump escalates his attack and amasses more free legal work for clients he dictates. Law firms bending the knee to his bullying become part of his “network," as he calls them. Legal serfs and supplicants ready to do his bidding. Let’s recognize law firms standing up and speaking up against Trump’s repugnant campaign of threats and intimidation. They’re resisting a slide toward tyranny. We should all be paying attention to law firms bending the knee to his bullying—and those that don't,” wrote Blumenthal on Twitter/X.
Demanding Accountability from Meta for Exposing Americans’ Data to China
Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, spoke at a Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism hearing entitled, “A Time for Truth: Oversight of Meta’s Foreign Relations and Representations to the United States Congress,” with Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams. During the hearing, Blumenthal slammed Meta for its alleged work to censor and provide artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including surveillance software, for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
“Meta is trying to buy, and even bribe, and pander its way out of any accountability. It has donated a million dollars to Trump’s inaugural fund, it started ripping up its policies on hate speech, and letting fraud and abuse run rampant on its platforms. And appallingly, according to the Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg has visited the White House three times to get the President to order the Federal Trade Commission to drop its antitrust case,” said Blumenthal. “The American people are going to be pretty outraged that Mark Zuckerberg sold out America to China, that he imperiled our national security for a buck. That he compromised a highly significant American corporation for personal gain and profit.”
Blumenthal raised concerns over Meta’s plans to partner with a Chinese company to build censorship tools and provide the CCP with user data, “[Mark Zuckerberg] oversaw and personally approved plans that undermined American national security because his own engineers warned him that operating in China would expose Americans to Chinese surveillance and censorship.”
“I have opened an investigation with Senator Ron Johnson on behalf of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and we have demanded documents from Meta regarding its operations in China. The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is determined to use whatever tools and instruments and powers we have to get to the bottom of all the facts here,” Blumenthal concluded.
A video of his remarks can be found here.
At the same hearing, Blumenthal raised national security concerns over Ms. Wynn-Williams’s allegations that Meta worked to provide censorship and surveillance software for the CCP in order to gain access to the Chinese market, potentially exposing Americans’ private data to a foreign adversary.
During his questioning, Blumenthal asked Ms. Wynn-Williams if engineers working on these tools raised concerns to higher-ups at Meta, “In order to operate in China, the Communist Party requires American companies to register with authorities and host servers inside the country. And I think it’s pretty well known that Chinese law requires that security services are allowed access to any data hosted within the country. Did any of Facebook’s security team or its engineers raise concerns to management about Americans’ private information being exposed to Chinese spying?”
Ms. Wynn-Williams confirmed that engineers raised these concerns, continuing, “They documented their concern in a number of ways. They noted that this would happen, that the Chinese would get access to the data. They also noted their concern in other discussions, in other documentations, saying you know, ‘my redline as a security engineer is to not be comfortable with this, but my redline is not Mark Zuckerberg’s redline.’”
A video of Blumenthal’s exchange with Ms. Wynn-Williams can be found here.
With accompanying videos on Twitter/X, Blumenthal further called out Meta for its lack of concern regarding the security of Americans’ data.
“Meta is trying to buy, bribe, & pander its way out of accountability. The American people should be outraged that Mark Zuckerberg has sold out America to China—imperiling our national security for a buck,” wrote Blumenthal on Twitter/X.
“Zuckerberg's disregard for the security & privacy of American citizens has left us exposed to China’s surveillance efforts. The safety of Americans & our national security should not rely on Zuckerberg's “redline." He has none,” wrote Blumenthal on Twitter/X.
Protecting Against Increasingly Significant Threats from Foreign Influence Efforts
Blumenthal released a PSI minority staff report today revealing the Subcommittee’s findings in its inquiry into foreign influence in the United States. PSI began its probe in June 2023 to better understand the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund’s (the PIF) attempts to control the game of golf in the United States via the PGA Tour and LIV Golf merger. Since then, the Subcommittee’s inquiry expanded to shine a light on the Saudi Arabian government’s attempts to gain power and influence in the United States through the PIF’s rapidly increasing U.S. commercial investments.
Among its key findings, PSI’s investigation uncovered that U.S. defenses are inadequate to protect against increasingly sophisticated foreign influence efforts by Saudi Arabia and other malign actors and exposed loopholes within the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) that allow foreign governments to escape accountability.
“My PSI investigation is a call to action—supporting strong reforms for disclosure by foreign actors,” said Blumenthal. “Our report reveals how present laws may enable foreign influence without transparency. Very simply, our present defenses do not protect against increasingly sophisticated threats. While the Trump Administration rolls back deterrents against foreign influence and seeks investments from our adversaries, I am calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to immediately step up enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and support my Sovereign Wealth Fund Transparency Act.”
To protect against increasingly sophisticated threats, Blumenthal has also introduced the Sovereign Wealth Fund Transparency Act to fix loopholes within FARA and to provide DOJ with additional means to combat foreign influence
The full text of PSI’s report is available here. The full text of Blumenthal’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Transparency Act is available here.
On the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee
Blumenthal, Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, along with Committee member and combat veteran U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Committee member and former Chairman U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) took to the Senate floor to ask for unanimous consent to pass three resolutions that would condemn and reverse the Trump Administration’s egregious cuts and firings targeting the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and veterans across the federal government. The resolutions were blocked from passing by Senate Republicans.
Blumenthal’s resolution condemns actions taken by Trump and Elon Musk negatively impacting veterans’ mental health care and suicide prevention efforts, including the mass firing of VA employees serving veterans. It also calls for all VA mental health care and suicide prevention efforts to be fully staffed and resourced—not the subject of additional cuts.
“The VA is in crisis. We need to take action for our veterans and VA employees who are deeply disserved and damaged by the Trump and Musk cruel slash and trash regime,” said Blumenthal. “Yet, when my colleagues and I asked for unanimous consent to reverse these draconian and indiscriminate cuts—Republicans once again blocked our resolutions to restore the VA and federal veteran workforce. Now more than ever, veterans need assurances both parties will stand up to protect the benefits and health care they earned—especially the life-saving mental health care they rely on.”
A video of the Senators’ remarks can be found here.
With an accompanying video on Twitter/X, Blumenthal called out Trump and Elon Musk for the cuts, freezes, and firings decimating health care and benefits for our nation’s veterans along with Senate Republicans for their lack of action to help our veterans.
“Taking a wrecking ball to the VA, Trump & Musk are slashing & trashing veterans' benefits & health care. Senator Sanders, Senator Duckworth, and I called for unanimous consent to pass resolutions to reverse their indiscriminate cuts for veterans—but were blocked by Senate Republicans,” wrote Blumenthal on Twitter/X.
Blumenthal Bulletin
Blumenthal demanded VA Secretary Doug Collins exempt VA employees from Trump’s “retaliatory” executive order to strip federal employees’ labor rights.
Blumenthal joined colleagues in a letter demanding answers and the return of Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador.
Blumenthal introduced legislation to stop the monopoly of the meat-packing industry and promote opportunity for local ranchers.
Blumenthal led bipartisan legislation with U.S. Representative Lori Trahan (D-MA) to advance brain cancer research and development.
Blumenthal called on Doug Collins with U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and U.S. Representative Mark Takano (D-CA) to stop pushing thousands of veterans into foreclosure.
Blumenthal introduced bicameral legislative package with U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) to bolster childhood nutrition programs.
Blumenthal called out Trump’s tariffs that threaten higher prices and recession.
Blumenthal slammed Trump’s cuts, freezes, and firings to the NIH and HHS, causing delays in research and hindering care for patients.
Blumenthal blasted deadly public health cuts while warning of the dangers of ticks and tick-borne diseases this season.
Blumenthal called for Congress to take back control over Trump’s tariffs that are hurting American families.
Blumenthal slammed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s rescission of ATF’s zero-tolerance policy.
Blumenthal called out Trump’s assault on the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Blumenthal celebrated the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team for becoming NCAA national champions for the 12th time.
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