Questions about the film

all the people trying to kill Shaw & Gratham, were they directly Mattiece's men or via the law office White & Blazevich, or were they government agents sent by Fletcher Coal to cover it up (regardless of whether Mattiece knew) and limit exposure of the president?

***Major Spoilers below***


Coal had a 2-track strategy.

Track 1:
Coal dispatched his friend Matthew Barr to surveil Granthem. Coal needed to know if Granthem was about to make the pelican brief public, which would compel the White House to act preemptively. If necessary, Coal planed to have the president call the FBI Director to the White House and in the presence of the Attorney General, explicitly order The FBI Director to launch a criminal investigation of Victor Mattiece. This would be necessary to inoculate the president of any copability, because Coal knew (or at least suspected) that the pelican brief's conclusions were true. Coal was also aware that the president had asked FBI Director Voyles to back-off, which could expose the president to an Obstruction of Justice charge. Next, the president would have to nominate 2 nature-lovers to the supreme court that would never side with Mattiece in his oil lawsuit case. Finally, Coal would leak copies of the pelican brief to every reporter in town, and the White House would "hunker-down and ride out the storm." If it came to this, the Track 1 strategy was the worst-case scenario.


Track 2:
"But there has to be some way to keep this information from coming out," the president said.

"I'm working on it," Coal replied.

"What? How?" the president asked.

"Mr. President. . . you don't want to know," Coal reveals.

Coal suspected (or knew) that the pelican brief was true, and that Victor Mattiece had Justices Rosenburg and Jensen assassinated. So presumably, Coal contacted Mattiece, told him about the pelican brief, which set things into motion. Mattiece likely contacted his White & Blazevich lawyer Marty Velmano, who contacted Edwin Sneller. As a result, Stump attempted to take Darby out with a car-bomb in New Orleans. Callahan was in the car, but Darby was not. Next, Darby successfully evades Stump in the French Quarter. Becoming desperate, Sneller again hires Khamel, this time to eliminate Darby. After Khamel is killed in New Orleans, 2 Washington assassins are hired to join Stump. Velmano and Sneller literally run into Darby who was hurriedly leaving Velmano's law firm in Washington, D.C. Stump, back on Darby's trail in Washington, eventually placed a car-bomb in the rental car that she and Gray were using, and you know the rest.


Unrelated to Fletcher Coal:
Darby was also being followed by an independent operative (Rupert) hired by the CIA. CIA Director Bob Gminski ordered Rupert to locate and tail Darby. Rupert even protected her by killing Khamel, who had disguised himself as Gavin Vereek to get close enough to assassinate Darby. The guy who Granthem found in his hotel room, was likely working for the CIA, because Rupert was also waiting at the hotel to follow Granthem when he left. Granthem quickly notices that he's being followed, and eventually ditches Rupert.

To answer your question, we know the Supreme Court assassinations were conceived by White & Blazevich lawyers, Sims Wakefield and Marty Velmano. And since we know that Edwin Sneller hired Khamel twice, and because we see Velmano with Sneller as Darby frantically runs into them as she leaves the law firm after learning that Curtis Morgan (a.k.a. Garcia) was dead, we know that the orders are coming from (or at least through) the W&B lawyer Marty Velmano. There is also a scene with Sneller, Stump, and the new male & female assassins meeting at the Washington Monument.

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