For those who think powerful corporate attorneys are exempt from the laws of karma, consider Brad Karp, chair of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, the premier NYC-based law firm with deep historic ties to the Democratic Party.
Karp led the New York City-based firm (aka Paul Weiss) which was steeped in the lawfare campaign aimed at keeping Donald Trump from returning to the White House. After those efforts failed, Karp, felt the wrath of President Trump's executive order last March which threatened to strip the firm's security clearances and access to federal contracts.
Karp struck a deal with the Trump Administration which caused defections from his storied firm and a major meltdown on the Left and its media.
When Karp was tied to Jeffrey Epstein in the latest release of the Epstein Files, the Left's media immediately sounded the alarm. On Wednesday Feb. 4, Karp resigned as chair of Paul Weiss. He remains as a partner.
The 1,200-lawyer firm said it appointed Scott Barshay as its new chair.
In a statement, Karp said: “Leading Paul Weiss for the past 18 years has been the honor of my professional life. Recent reporting has created a distraction and has placed a focus on me that is not in the best interests of the firm.”
The earthly power of the Paul Weiss firm is difficult to overstate. Notable Affiliations include Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor, who began their careers at the firm. Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson have worked there as partners.
Newly released Epstein Files showed that Karp communicated with Epstein about one of his top clients and also asked Epstein to find a role for his son in a Woody Allen film.
"The latest trove of emails published by the Justice Department showed a chummy relationship between the superlawyer and the sex offender that endured for years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to soliciting a minor—and even before his arrest in 2019 on sex-trafficking charges," the Wall Street Journal reported on Feb. 6.
"Karp had professional dealings with Epstein because Paul Weiss represented private-equity giant Apollo Global Management and its co-founder Leon Black in negotiations over fee disputes with the disgraced financier. But the Epstein files revealed a relationship that went beyond business."
The emails released by the Justice Department including one from 2019, just before Epstein’s arrest, which suggested Karp had reviewed a legal draft arguing against prosecutors’ push to reopen Epstein’s controversial plea deal. The document was “in great shape,” Karp assured Epstein, who then forwarded it to his own legal team.
The Journal's report noted: "The past year or so has been difficult for Karp. He suffered a heart attack just months before major law firms found themselves in Trump’s crosshairs. Paul Weiss was hit with an executive order directing federal agencies to strip the firm of government contracts and building-access. Karp called it an existential threat."
When Karp cut the deal with Trump, other firms followed, "but it was Karp who became the public face of big law’s capitulation to Trump," the Journal added.
Paul Weiss has deep ties to the Left.
The firm has been closely aligned with the Democrat Party, acting as a "darling" of the party and often serving as a landing spot for high-ranking Democrat officials.
Under Karp, the firm was a major fundraiser for Kamala Harris and active in Democrat election law issues.
Trump's March 14, 2025 executive order stated:
In 2021, a Paul Weiss partner and former leading prosecutor in the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller brought a pro bono suit against individuals alleged to have participated in the events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, on behalf of the District of Columbia Attorney General.Additionally, as WorldTribune.com reported in December 2024, E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, and the presiding judge in the case, Lewis Kaplan, worked together at Paul Weiss in the 1990s.
In 2022, Paul Weiss hired unethical attorney Mark Pomerantz, who had previously left Paul Weiss to join the Manhattan District Attorney’s office solely to manufacture a prosecution against me and who, according to his co-workers, unethically led witnesses in ways designed to implicate me. After being unable to convince even Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that a fraud case was feasible, Pomerantz engaged in a media campaign to gin up support for this unwarranted prosecution.
At the time, Trump lawyer Alina Habba said she was unaware until after the judgment was handed down that Judge Kaplan and Roberta Kaplan worked together at the firm. When asked about it by New York Post columnist Charles Gasparino, who was told by a source that the judge was once Roberta Kaplan’s “mentor,” Habba responded: “It was never disclosed. It’s insane and so incestuous.”
Habba said that neither the judge nor Roberta Kaplan, who aren’t related, disclosed the “conflict of interest.”
Free Press International
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