'How embarrassing': DOJ swiftly reverses course on high-profile legal fight

The Department of Justice indicated it would reverse course and continue defending a series of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump targeting individual law firms.

The Trump administration asked an appeals court Monday in a filing whether it could walk away from its appeals of legal victories won by the firms against the White House, but sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday morning the DOJ appeared to have changed its position, reported the New York Times.

"In an email to the four firms contesting the orders, a department official apologized for the short notice and said it would file a motion to withdraw its voluntary dismissal," the Times reported. "It was not immediately clear what legal strategy the administration would ultimately embrace or whether a court would allow the Justice Department to reverse course."

The email was sent to the firms about 10 a.m. and gave them about a half hour to notify DOJ whether they planned to oppose the reversal, and a White House official told the Times there were ongoing discussions in the White House Counsel’s Office on how to proceed.

The Trump orders barred targeted firms from government business and led many firms to agree to the president's terms, but four of them — Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey – challenged the orders and won favorable rulings from district court judges.

Former federal judge Shira A. Scheindlin told the Times she expected the administration would lose at the appeals court level but had a faint chance of success at the Supreme Court, but she said the abrupt reversal was highly unusual.

“How embarrassing to reverse yourself after all the bad press,” she said.