New reporting by Politico on Friday said the Trump administration had cancelled two contracts awarded this year to Foley Hoag, a law firm representing plaintiffs in several multimillion-dollar lawsuits against President Donald Trump. The cases include challenges involving the proposed White House ballroom and changes to the Kennedy Center.

According to Politico, the Department of Health and Human Services cancelled the contracts. “In June,” Politico reported, “HHS awarded a contract worth up to $12 million to Foley Hoag for legal services for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, according to USASpending.gov.” Contracting data showed that $5.9 million of that amount had already been “obligated,” or legally promised, to the firm.

In May, HHS also awarded Foley Hoag a contract worth up to $9.1 million for “legal support for CMS drug pricing initiatives.” Of that contract, $4.4 million had already been obligated. Politico reported that HHS was the only Cabinet agency to have held contracts with Foley Hoag during the Trump administration, although the report repeated the phrase “during the Trump administration” in describing the agency’s contracting history.

When Politico asked HHS about the contracts, an agency spokesperson said only: “HHS does not have any existing contracts with Foley Hoag.”

Foley Hoag is representing the National Trust for Historic Preservation in its lawsuit against the Trump administration over the proposed White House ballroom. The firm is also representing a group of cultural organizations seeking to prevent the Kennedy Center from being physically altered without the required public review.

The firm has represented other groups in cases involving the administration. It represented Power Forward Communities in a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency over the cancellation of a $2 billion clean-energy grant. It also worked to obtain bond hearings for immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and assisted Human Rights Watch and other organizations in litigation over the administration’s actions against the International Criminal Court, according to Politico.

The contract cancellations are not the first actions Trump has taken against law firms that opposed him. Early in his second term, he signed a series of executive orders targeting firms he accused of “weaponizing” the legal system against him and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI. The orders barred several prominent law firms from entering federal buildings, revoked their security clearances and terminated government contracts held by their clients.

The firms sued, arguing that the orders violated the First Amendment and the separation of powers. Federal judges blocked the orders as unconstitutional, and the Department of Justice eventually dropped most of its cases. A handful of firms settled by agreeing to provide pro bono work.

Trump has continued construction of the ballroom and efforts to add his name to the Kennedy Center despite multiple legal setbacks. Courts have largely blocked his efforts involving the Kennedy Center, prompting him to threaten to demolish it, while the Supreme Court has allowed him to continue moving forward with the ballroom. The projects remain unpopular in polling cited by the report: 33 percent of Americans support construction of the ballroom, and 24 percent support adding Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center.

Source: https://www.alternet.org/trump-ballroom-kennedy-center-2677849135/