Judge Probes Alleged Deception Surrounding Trump’s Settlement With IRS

A federal district judge is probing allegations of fraud in President Donald Trump’s recently settled lawsuit over alleged IRS leaks of his tax returns, she indicated in an order on May 29.

An Anti-Weaponization Fund was created as part of the settlement of the lawsuit. Trump agreed to drop a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, provided that the nearly $1.8 billion fund would be established to compensate alleged victims of the weaponization of law enforcement.

A request for answers from attorneys came in an order issued by Judge Kathleen Williams of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Williams said she wanted to probe “grievous allegations” that the settlement was “premised on deception.”

Williams said that 35 former federal judges filed a motion asking the court to reopen the case. Some of those who support the motion “submit that the settlement ‘is a product of collusion and is itself a fraud on the Court.’”

In other words, the former judges alleged that the lawsuit was collusive, meaning that Trump and the IRS are accused of working together for a disposition of the case favorable to Trump instead of properly litigating it in the usual adversarial setting of a court.

She noted that a judicial rule known as Rule 11 allows the court to investigate serious misconduct and determine “whether an attorney has abused the judicial process.”

“A party’s decision to file a frivolous lawsuit for the sole purpose of forcing a settlement may qualify as such an improper purpose,” she wrote.

The judge directed Trump’s attorneys to answer questions about any possible deception by June 12.

Earlier on May 29, Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued an order in separate litigation temporarily blocking the Trump administration’s moves to establish the Anti-Weaponization Fund.

She said the order was needed to make sure that no funds are “irreversibly disbursed” before litigation over the fund has an opportunity to play out.

Brinkema’s order was in response to a lawsuit filed by former federal prosecutor Andrew Floyd, who had prosecuted individuals who were allegedly involved in the security breach at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as well as a California professor who was arrested while he demonstrated against a federal immigration raid. A nonprofit organization also joined the challenge against creation of the fund.

Democratic lawmakers have largely been critical of the fund, while some Republicans have pushed back against its creation.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on May 21 told The Hill that he has questions about the settlement between Trump and the federal government.

“I think it’s unprecedented for someone to be on both sides of a legal decision, where you make a plea bargain with yourself, essentially,” Paul told the outlet.

At a congressional hearing earlier in May, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) criticized the fund and how it will be administered.

“What we’re talking about is nothing short of the sitting president of the United States looting from the Treasury for his own gain,” she said.

As a result of the settlement, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on May 19 that the IRS would no longer pursue claims against Trump, members of his family, or his businesses over allegedly unpaid taxes.

Trump, two of his sons, and the Trump family business had sued in federal court in Florida in January, alleging that the IRS and its parent agency, the Department of the Treasury, had failed to prevent a former contractor from leaking Trump’s tax returns to the media.

The plaintiffs alleged that the agencies failed to take mandatory precautions to prevent the former IRS contractor from unlawfully obtaining access to their confidential tax records and giving that information to The New York Times and ProPublica between 2019 and 2020.

As part of the settlement, the plaintiffs themselves will receive “a formal apology but no monetary payment or damages of any kind,” the Department of Justice said in a May 18 statement.

The plaintiffs agreed to drop their claims “in exchange for the creation of this fund,” and in addition they agreed to withdraw two administrative claims they filed for damages “resulting from the unlawful raid of Mar-a-Lago and the Russia-collusion hoax.”

“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” Blanche said in the statement.

In response to criticism, Trump previously wrote in a Truth Social post that he “gave up a lot of money” as part of the settlement to create the new fund.

He said that he is helping others who were “so badly abused” by the previous presidential administration.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.