The New York Times: “Boris Epshteyn, a personal lawyer for President Trump, connected two firms — Kirkland & Ellis and Skadden Arps — to the Commerce Department. Two of the law firms that reached deals with President Trump this year to avoid punitive executive orders were connected in recent months with the Commerce Department about working on trade deals, according to three people briefed on the matter. The firms, Kirkland & Ellis and Skadden Arps, were connected to the department by Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Boris Epshteyn, two of the people said. Mr. Epshteyn, who does not hold a government position, played a direct role in brokering the initial deals between Mr. Trump and the law firms, in which the firms agreed to do pro bono work on causes the president has championed, like helping veterans, military families and first responders. His previously undisclosed efforts connecting the firms with the Commerce Department shows how he is seeking to impose Mr. Trump’s expansive view of the deals, including recruiting firms to work for the government in advancing the administration’s agenda…After Mr. Epshteyn helped connect the firms with the government in recent months, Kirkland and Ellis went on to work on the trade deals the administration struck with Japan and South Korea, which were announced in July, according to three of the people. It is unclear if Skadden Arps has done work for the administration.

Earlier this year, after the law firms struck deals with Mr. Trump, the president said that he had a broader understanding of the terms than the firms had let on, saying the pro bono work included helping the administration on trade deals and could even be applied to representing him in a personal capacity. It’s unclear whether Kirkland & Ellis did the work for free or charged the Commerce Department. But the revelation of the firm’s work marks the first time that it has been publicly known that one of the firms that cut a deal with Mr. Trump is now doing work for the administration. Representatives of Kirkland & Ellis and Skadden Arps did not immediately respond to requests for comment. When asked for comment, Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, did not directly address the latest developments. Instead he said that Mr. Trump “has radically changed the business of discrimination, including by ending D.E.I. in Big Law.”