Trump admin live updates: Trump strikes deals with law firms totaling $600M

President Donald Trump on Friday sent a presidential memorandum to Cabinet secretaries directing them to devise a plan to take jurisdiction over federal lands to combat illegal border crossings.

There are already about 10,000 troops stationed along the border supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and this move could expand the role the troops play at the border.

The directive, sent to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, will be first implemented on a "limited sector" of federal lands along the border, to be determined by Hegseth over the next 45 days.

The portions of border land occupied by the military might then expand "at any time," the memorandum says.

Border crossings have already descended to low levels since Trump took office and defined ending illegal immigration as a top priority, but officials have told ABC News that efforts at the border will continue until there is "total operational control."

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett

President Donald Trump weighed in Friday night into the legal battle over Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

The government faces a 5 p.m. deadline to provide the judge with more information about Garcia's whereabouts and efforts the United States is making to facilitate his return, following a Supreme Court order.

Trump told reporters he wasn't well versed in the case. However, he reiterated his respect for the Supreme Court.

"If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back, I would do that. I respect the Supreme Court," he said.

-ABC News' Katherine Faulders

After becoming the latest target of President Donald Trump, the law firm Susman Godfrey filed a lawsuit Friday night to block what it says is the president's "blatantly unconstitutional" executive order against it.

"The President is abusing the powers of his office to wield the might of the Executive Branch in retaliation against organizations and people that he dislikes," the lawsuit, filed in Washington D.C., states.

For years Susman Godfrey has represented the voting machine company Dominion, famously securing a $787.5 million settlement from Fox News to settle allegations the network aired false claims about the company rigging the 2020 election. Now, the firm says Trump is trying to "punish" them for their work "defending the integrity of the 2020 presidential election."

"If President Trump’s Executive Orders are allowed to stand, future presidents will face no constraint when they seek to retaliate against a different set of perceived foes," the lawsuit states. "What for two centuries has been beyond the pale will become the new normal. Put simply, this could be any of us."

Notably, Susman Godfrey still represents Dominion in its active cases against a number of Trump’s allies -- including Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell and others.

Earlier this week, Trump signed an executive order targeting the firm, which seeks to block their access from government buildings and cancel government contracts, among others, over their "previous activities."

In its lawsuit, Susman says that "at least a third" of the firm’s current matters call for their attorneys to appear in federal courts or interact with federal agencies in some way, and that they would be "irreparably harmed" by the order.

-ABC News' Olivia Rubin

A Trump-appointed judge late Friday accused the White House of cherry-picking testimony and misconstruing facts in its effort to seek a stay of his order that would, come Sunday, return the Associated Press to the White House press pool.

Judge Trevor McFadden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the government's request for a stay pending appeal.

In a five-page order that ripped at the various rationales the administration has put forward to delay the restoration of the Associated Press' access, the judge reiterated his finding that the Trump White House has retaliated against the Associated Press in violation of its First Amendment rights.

"The motion fails on the law," McFadden said. "But it also misconstrues the facts."

McFadden also said the government "cherry-picked" a quote from the testimony of the Associated Press' Chief White House Correspondent Zeke Miller, who acknowledged under Justice Department cross-examination that the news organization was able to cover events such as the president's press conferences with the leaders of France and the United Kingdom by flying in the reporters who cover them in Paris and London.

"As the court previously found, the AP's text journalists have been systematically banned from large, limited-access events open to the entire White House press corps," McFadden said, adding that the ban the Associated Press has experienced "need not be complete to be unconstitutional or irreparable."

The judge also scolded the Justice Department for changing up its legal arguments in its Wednesday stay request, pointing to "a vague separation-of-powers" concern "for the first time in a motion to stay."

The "clear commands of First Amendment precedent" outweigh those concerns, McFadden said.

-ABC News' Steven Portnoy