LA Fire Charity Slammed By Trump Taps Latham for Probe

FireAid hired a former Trump Justice Department official to review how the charity distributed $75 million raised for victims of the Los Angeles wildfires in response to criticism from the White House and a local lawmaker.

Latham & Watkins partner Makan Delrahim is leading the “comprehensive review,” he said in a Monday letter to Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.). Delrahim ran the Justice Department’s antitrust division during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Kiley publicly criticized the organization, claiming FireAid gave the money to nonprofits that had nothing to do with fire relief and calling for Attorney General Pam Bondi to launch an investigation. That drew attention from Trump, who called the benefit show a “total disaster” in a July 25 Truth Social post.

FireAid responded by outlining the grants it gave to some 160 aid groups, schools, and other local organizations, which were vetted by Goldman Sachs. It said it would donate another $25 million by the end of the year and that KPMG would audit its annual financial statements.

Latham is one of the nine major law firms that struck deals with President Donald Trump earlier this year to avoid a punitive executive order and resolve a federal probe of the firm’s diversity and inclusion policies. The California-founded firm is the second-largest in the country, raking in $7 billion in gross revenue in 2024, according to Bloomberg Law data.

Makan Delrahim

Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

Latham didn’t immediately respond to a request for comments about whether the work will be done pro bono.

Delrahim, who left the Justice Department’s antitrust division in 2021, oversaw the DOJ’s failed effort to block AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner on anticompetitive grounds. He joined Latham as a partner in its LA and DC offices April 2022.

The organizations that received FireAid funds are “worthy and have close relationships to the recovery efforts in response to the fires,” Delrahim said in the letter to Kiley.

FireAid’s Los Angeles efforts followed the devastating wildfires in January 2025. To raise funds for those affected, the organization threw a benefit concert headlined by artists Lady Gaga, the surviving members of Nirvana, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Kia Forum and Intuit Dome. Concert organization was led by former Ticketmaster chief Irving Azoff and ex-Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer, who owns pro basketball’s LA Clippers.

The new review will include assessing whether recipient organizations are using funds in alignment with the organization’s stated purpose, according to FireAid.