West Coast AGs blast Trump’s ‘brazen disregard for truth’ in joint town hall

OLYMPIA – Three West Coast attorneys general locked arms this week in a show of solidarity against perceived ills from the federal government.

The Monday “Community Impact Town Hall” in Seattle featured Attorneys General Nick Brown of Washington, Dan Rayfield of Oregon and Rob Bonta of California. The legal trio answered questions from the public about federal pushes to target so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, reproductive health care and more.

The Democratic officials spoke Monday of a unique alliance: All three states have been targeted by President Donald Trump since he took office in January.

Brown, Bonta and Rayfield have been active in taking the federal administration to court. In a media availability ahead of the town hall, Brown cast Trump as a “blatantly dishonest man” with “such low character” that the lawsuits are needed to preserve the rule of law in America.

“But it won’t persevere if people capitulate, if they hide, if they don’t fight back in this moment,” he said. “And that’s why I’m really proud of the collaboration that’s happening among the attorneys general.”

Here are some takeaways from the West Coast AGs.

Grand scale of anti-Trump lawsuits

Brown provided a tally for those who’ve lost track of how many lawsuits Washington has filed against Trump’s administration. Washington’s top lawyer said Monday that he’s filed 20 lawsuits, while California and Oregon have each filed 23.

By contrast, Brown said that Washington had brought just two lawsuits at this point in 2017, the first year of Trump’s first term.

Brown attributed the increase to states being “extremely prepared” this go-round. He also highlighted states’ willingness to collaborate and “a level of lawlessness and recklessness by the Trump administration that was not there the first time.”

“We as attorneys general need to respond, and at base of all of our litigation is one binding principle: We are going to act when the president violates the law,” he told reporters ahead of the town hall. “And that is what we’re seeing from this president and his administration time and time again.”

Bonta echoed that analysis during Monday’s main event.

The California Democrat said that even before the 2024 election, West Coast attorneys general were working together to get ready for the possibility of another Trump term. Much of the federal administration’s aims were laid out ahead of time by Project 2025, he said, referring to the controversial federal-policy blueprint.

“We are prepared, and we have a commitment to take the Trump administration to court each and every time they violate the law, violate the Constitution and hurt our states,” Bonta said.

Is U.S. in constitutional crisis?

The blue-state attorneys general mulled that question Monday.

Brown views the quandary of whether the country is in the midst of a constitutional crisis as somewhat of an academic discussion. He stopped short of applying that descriptor, but said it’s clear the country “is very much in a crisis.”

“We have a president who simply disregards the law, who disregards the separation of powers, who does not care about precedent or constitutional authority,” he said at the town hall. “He is doing what he wants, and he is doing it with such brazen disregard for the truth.”

Bonta said everyone has their own definition of a constitutional crisis. But his personal definition – that the Trump administration acknowledges a Supreme Court’s “clear, understandable” ruling and doesn’t follow it – hasn’t happened, he said.

He also referenced the level of unease felt by many Americans.

“I know there’s a lot of interest, concern – maybe anxiety and fear – about what’s happening at the federal level,” Bonta said. “We want to assure people … that we will continue to fight by their side.”

Sanctuary jurisdictions

The attorneys general also decried pushes by the Trump administration to tie federal funding to compliance with federal immigration enforcement.

Mass deportations have been a cornerstone pursuit of Trump’s second term. Last week the Department of Homeland Security published a list of more than 500 so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, including Washington, California and Oregon, that reject such immigration policy. (That list has since been taken down.)

But the attorneys general defended their respective sanctuary policies.

“We will stand in place to protect our sanctuary-state laws that exist up and down the West Coast,” Rayfield said at the town hall.

Brown’s office also has remained adamant that the Keep Washington Working Act – which largely prohibits local law enforcement from using local resources to aid U.S. immigration efforts – is consistent with federal law.

West Coast unity, collaboration

Rayfield told reporters Monday that there’s been an increase in collaboration among the left-coast coalition.

“The three West Coast states are also being targeted at times by the Trump administration,” he said, “and to have this incredible partnership between the three offices is something that feels very unique.”

Brown said that he’d love for Republican attorneys general to work alongside them.

So far, however, he said his Republican counterparts have declined to help with litigation, even though the suits to stop federal-funding cuts would also affect their states.

Bonta told town-hall attendees that state attorneys general are able to best perform when they pool resources, sharing expertise and strategy.

“We have a team of … Democratic attorneys general who – from the Canada border to the Mexico border, from the West Coast to the East Coast – have been working hand in hand,” he said.