US judge nullifies Trump’s IRS settlement deal, says lawsuit aims to ‘manipulate the judicial process’

A US federal judge on Monday invalidated President Donald Trump’s settlement with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), ruling that the lawsuit was filed for an “improper purpose” and recommended sanctions and disciplinary measures against the lawyers involved.In a 56-page order, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said the lawsuit is not an actual legal dispute, but an attempt to use the courts to legitimize an agreement that gives sweeping benefits to Trump and his allies.“This action was never about a party seeking a judicial resolution of a legal question or factual dispute,” Williams wrote.She added that the lawsuit was “an attempt to use the court to lend some legitimacy to an agreement granting immunity to people and entities associated with the president and allocating billions of American taxpayer dollars to address injustices not specified in the law.”She added. The lawsuit was not an actual legal dispute, but rather an attempt to “game the judicial process” by using the court to validate an agreement that gave sweeping benefits to Trump and his allies.Williams found that Trump and the IRS, which he oversees as president, were not truly opposing parties as required by the U.S. Constitution. It referred one of Trump’s private lawyers to the Florida Bar for possible disciplinary action and sent its order to disciplinary authorities in New York and Washington, D.C., where acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Assistant Attorney General Stanley Woodward are licensed, to determine whether their conduct violated legal ethics rules.

The judge also barred attorney Daniel Epstein, who represented Trump in the case, from appearing before the Southern District of Florida for a year.The lawsuit stemmed from the 2019 leak of Trump’s confidential tax returns by a former IRS contractor. Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization have sued the IRS and the Treasury Department, alleging they failed to protect the family’s tax information.The case ended in May with a settlement that proposed creating a $1.776 billion “anti-arms control” fund to compensate alleged victims of politically motivated government actions, along with a formal apology and protection for Trump and his companies from IRS audits. The fund was later canceled after bipartisan criticism, although the audit immunity clause remains in place.Williams also criticized the Justice Department, saying it had “abdicated its responsibility to zealously defend the interests of the United States” by entering into a settlement that “achieved objectives beyond those permitted, as well as those specifically prohibited, by law.”A spokesman for Trump’s legal team defended the lawsuit, saying that the IRS allowed a “politically motivated rogue employee” to leak the president’s confidential tax information, and that Trump would continue to hold those responsible accountable.