{"id":1565,"date":"2026-05-30T16:03:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T16:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1565"},"modified":"2026-05-30T16:03:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T16:03:37","slug":"judge-reopens-trump-irs-suit-questioning-weaponization-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1565","title":{"rendered":"Judge reopens Trump IRS suit, questioning \u2018weaponization\u2019 fund"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<p><span>A federal judge in Miami reopened President Donald Trump\u2019s $10 billion case against the IRS in a striking turnabout, saying that she wanted to investigate \u201cgrievous allegations\u201d that the hasty deal to resolve it was \u201cpremised on deception.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1563\">Trump lifts restrictions on off-road vehicles on public lands<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>The ruling by the judge, Kathleen M. Williams, on Friday to revive the case shortly after closing it was a significant blow both to Trump, who had voluntarily dismissed the suit last week, and to the Justice Department. After the president withdrew the suit, senior department officials released a pair of extraordinary agreements that settled the case by establishing a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who claimed they were victims of government \u201cweaponization\u201d by Democrats.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The deal also conferred lucrative tax benefits on Trump, his family and his businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>Williams\u2019 decision came in response to court papers filed Wednesday by a bipartisan group of 35 former federal judges who urged her to bring the case back to life and dig into the details of the agreement to settle it.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><span>Get Starting Point<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><label>Enter Email<\/label><\/p>\n<div><button>Sign Up<\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>The former judges said that Trump\u2019s settlement agreement raised serious questions about his \u201ccandor toward the court and manipulation of the judicial system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Before she closed the case, Williams, an Obama appointee, had in fact questioned whether the lawsuit presented an actual conflict that she could adjudicate, given that Trump was on both sides of the suit, bringing claims against a federal agency that he controlled. When she closed it, she noted there was no \u201csettlement of record,\u201d but shortly after, the Justice Department released its agreement foreclosing the action.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In her brief but stern order Friday, Williams said that she wanted to investigate the circumstances surrounding Trump\u2019s efforts to settle the lawsuit in a way that benefited him and his allies. If she succeeds in moving forward with her inquiry, it could ultimately result in questions being asked of the Justice Department leaders who signed the agreements to settle the suit &#8212; chief among them, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, and Stanley Woodward Jr., the No. 3 official in the department.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In her order, Williams asserted that she was \u201cempowered to investigate serious misconduct\u201d in any case before her, and ordered Trump\u2019s lawyers to tell her by June 12 whether the lawsuit should be formally reopened because \u201cthe court was the victim of a fraud.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>She also wanted Trump\u2019s lawyers to respond to the question of whether he had colluded with his own government to settle the case \u201cto avoid judicial scrutiny.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Williams pointed to reporting by The New York Times that described how the IRS had prepared a 25-page memorandum outlining defenses against the suit that the Justice Department did not take up in court.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1561\">Trump now says \u2018I have no interest\u2019 in Kennedy Center renovation after judge\u2019s ruling<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Lawyers for the former judges hailed Williams\u2019 decision.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe judges and their counsel greatly appreciate the seriousness with which the court is addressing these grievous allegations,\u201d said Norman Eisen, who represented the former judges for the nonprofit group, Democracy Defenders Fund. \u201cWe stand ready to work with the court as it investigates this matter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Eisen was joined by the law firms Platkin and Susman Godfrey.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In their filing this week, the former judges claimed that Trump had improperly used his suit against the IRS as a way to obtain \u201cunlawful private benefits\u201d for himself and his family, and to create a fund that would dole out taxpayer money \u201cwithout constitutional or congressional authority.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>They also argued that the president had tried to shield the deal from judicial oversight by rushing a settlement and \u201cshort-circuiting\u201d Williams\u2019 ability to examine its terms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The $1.8 billion fund has faced separate legal headwinds. A federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia temporarily blocked the Trump administration from taking any further steps to set it up or disburse money from it. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including many Republicans, have also been critical of the fund, which upended GOP plans to pass a party-line bill funding immigration enforcement efforts last week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Trump, along with two of his sons and the Trump family business, first sued the IRS in January, claiming they were owed at least $10 billion because a former contractor at the agency had leaked their tax returns (and hundreds of others) during the president\u2019s first term in the White House. The Trumps claimed that the IRS should have done more to prevent the contractor, Charles Littlejohn, from disclosing tax information to the Times and ProPublica.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Trump\u2019s suit, as IRS officials laid out in their memo and other lawyers have noted, had clear legal flaws. Potential defenses against it include that it was filed after the statute of limitations, and that it incorrectly faulted the IRS for the actions of Littlejohn, previously a contractor employed by Booz Allen Hamilton. But the Justice Department never made an attempt to contest Trump\u2019s suit. No government lawyer entered an appearance in the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That has fueled criticism that the deal the Justice Department struck with Trump was not a genuine attempt to avoid a loss on the merits to the president in court, but instead a scheme to provide him and his political allies with public benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In a footnote, Williams questioned the provision granting Trump, his family and their businesses immunity from IRS scrutiny of tax returns they had already filed. She wrote that the audit protection may run afoul of Justice Department rules requiring legal settlements to directly relate to the issues in the suit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>She also noted that only Blanche signed the audit provision. The separate, nine-page agreement laying out the $1.8 billion fund was signed by Woodward and Frank Bisignano, who is serving as the chief executive officer of the IRS, a newly created role that is not subject to Senate confirmation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1559\">NBA\u2019s new draft lottery system will balance out the odds, disincentivize tanking<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>This article originally appeared in The New York Times.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A bipartisan group of 35 former federal judges who urged the judge to bring the case back to life and dig into the details of the agreement to settle it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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