Another major international law firm has reached a deal with President Donald Trump to dedicate at least $100 million in free legal services to causes such as supporting veterans and combating antisemitism, the White House and the law firm announced Tuesday.

The agreement makes Willkie Farr & Gallagher, the third law firm in the last two weeks to cut a deal with the White House to avert sanctions. Under the agreement, Willkie also agreed to disavow the use of equity, diversity and inclusion considerations in its hiring decisions and to not deny representation to any client “because of the personal political views of individual lawyers.”

The resolution underscores the differing approaches some of the world’s most elite law firms have taken as Trump aims to punish them over their association with prosecutors who have previously investigated him, as well as their perceived association with causes that are out of favor with the administration.

The firm is home to Doug Emhoff, the husband of 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, and Timothy Heaphy, who was chief investigative counsel to the House of Representatives committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The firm also represented two former Georgia election workers in a successful defamation lawsuit against former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Senator to block VA confirmations

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat, announced Tuesday he will block the confirmation of top leaders at the Department of Veterans Affairs, raising the stakes in Democrats’ bid to get the Trump administration to back off plans to cut jobs from the sprawling agency that serves millions of military veterans.

Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran, made the announcement just hours before the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs was scheduled to hear testimony from three nominees for the VA who are military veterans themselves.

The holds — a maneuver used on occasion in the Senate — means that it is impossible for the chamber to move quickly to confirm the nominees and would potentially have to tie up hours or days of floor time to advance each nominee.

Princeton latest to have grants withheld

The Trump administration has halted dozens of research grants at Princeton University, the latest Ivy League school to see its federal money threatened in a pressure campaign targeting the nation’s top universities.

Princeton, in New Jersey, was notified this week that several dozen federal grants are being suspended by agencies including the Department of Energy, NASA and the Defense Department, according to a campus message sent Tuesday by Christopher Eisgruber, the university’s president.

Eisgruber said the rationale was not fully clear but that Princeton will comply with the law. The school is among dozens facing federal investigations into antisemitism following a wave of pro-Palestinian protests last year.

“We are committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and we will cooperate with the government in combating antisemitism,” Eisgruber wrote. “Princeton will also vigorously defend academic freedom and the due process rights of this University.”

U.S. to vet applicants’ social media posts

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered diplomats overseas to scrutinize the social media content of some applicants for student and other types of visas, in an effort to ban those suspected of criticizing the United States and Israel from entering the country, U.S. officials say.

Rubio laid out the instructions in a long cable sent to diplomatic missions March 25.

The move came nine weeks after President Donald Trump signed executive orders to start a campaign to deport some foreign citizens, including those who might have “hostile attitudes” toward American “citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles.”

Trump also issued an executive order to begin a crackdown on what he called antisemitism, which includes deporting foreign students who have taken part in campus protests against Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

Rubio’s directive said that starting immediately, consular officers must refer certain student and exchange visitor visa applicants to the “fraud prevention unit” for a “mandatory social media check,” according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the cable.

ACLU seeks to uphold deportation order

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union argued to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday that the Trump administration had not satisfied an “exceedingly high burden” required to override a judge’s temporary order to stop migrant deportations to a Salvadoran mega prison.

In a 42-page filing to the justices, the lawyers said the government’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act should not apply since there is no declared war with Venezuela and that courts must be able to review whether individuals have been mistakenly labeled as members of the feared Tren de Aragua Venezuelan gang, a pretext for the deportations.

On Friday, the Trump administration formally asked the high court to intervene in its multi-week battle with lower courts over the president’s right to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members using the Alien Enemies Act, a 227-year-old law that’s been invoked only three times previously. They are asking the court to vacate a temporary restraining order issued on March 15 by U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington.

Judge blocks intel agencies’ layoffs

A federal judge in Virginia blocked the Trump administration’s move to fire more than a dozen intelligence agency employees who worked on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga granted a preliminary injunction Monday that prohibits the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence from firing 19 workers who challenged their terminations.

In a written decision published Tuesday, Trenga said the government must allow the employees to seek reassignment or appeal their termination as set forth in employment rules governing their agencies.

Trenga, who was nominated by President George W. Bush, said the employees should remain on paid administrative leave or be reinstated. He said he would review decisions to terminate any employees to ensure they had been given a chance to appeal or be reassigned under the order.

The employees were set to be terminated as part of the Trump administration’s effort to end DEI programs across the federal government.

— From news services