{"id":612805,"date":"2026-05-30T23:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T23:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/612805\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T23:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T23:32:12","slug":"judge-reopens-trumps-irs-suit-to-examine-1-8bn-settlement-with-justice-department-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/612805\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge reopens Trump\u2019s IRS suit to examine $1.8bn settlement with justice department | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge has reopened Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s $10bn case against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), after receiving a third-party motion asserting that the settlement, which lacks detail, \u201cis a product of collusion and is itself a fraud on the court\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ruling, issued by the Miami judge Kathleen Williams, revives a lawsuit brought by the president and his sons against the IRS after their personal and business tax returns were leaked by a former contractor.<\/p>\n

Trump dropped the lawsuit last week and Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general who was formerly Trump\u2019s personal defense lawyer, announced<\/a> that, in exchange, the US was \u201cforever barred\u201d from auditing the tax returns of Trump family members. The justice department also unveiled a controversial $1.8bn fund<\/a> to compensate people who claim they are victims of the federal government.<\/p>\n

The \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund has been widely criticized, including by lawmakers, even some Republicans, who have termed it a \u201cslush fund\u201d and a political liability. Others have said it is effectively a scheme for the Trumps to reward political friends while indirectly benefiting the family.<\/p>\n

The decision by Williams to reopen the case \u2013 itself an unusual move, given that civil plaintiffs have broad latitude to drop complaints \u2013 was returned after a bipartisan group of 35 former federal judges urged her to look more closely<\/a> at the settlement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purported \u2018settlement\u2019 that was publicly disclosed after this court dismissed this matter raises profound questions about the parties\u2019 candor toward the court and manipulation of the judicial system, which threatens to undermine confidence in the administration of justice,\u201d lawyers for the former judges wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The judges contended that Trump had used his suit against the IRS 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.<\/p>\n

They also argued that the president had tried to shield the deal from judicial oversight by rushing a settlement and \u201cshort-circuiting\u201d the court\u2019s ability to review its terms.<\/p>\n

Williams, an Obama appointee, had earlier questioned whether the lawsuit presented an actual conflict before her, given that Trump was effectively both plaintiff and defendant, since he controls the IRS, itself a branch of the treasury department.<\/p>\n

In her order<\/a> issued on Friday, Williams said that she wanted to investigate the circumstances surrounding the settlement and whom it benefited. An inquiry could ultimately see justice department officials, including the acting attorney general, brought before her court to testify.<\/p>\n

Williams wrote that she was \u201cempowered to investigate serious misconduct\u201d in any case before her, and ordered attorneys for Trump to inform her by 12 June how they respond to \u201cthe charges of collusion and whether the parties are truly adverse\u201d and \u201cthe question of whether the case should be reopened because the court was the \u2018victim of a fraud\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

The judge also asked attorneys to answer if Trump had colluded with his own government to settle the case \u201cto avoid judicial scrutiny\u201d.<\/p>\n

In her order, Williams also questioned the \u201cforever\u201d deal shielding the Trumps from IRS scrutiny. The judge noted that only Blanche signed the provision.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for the retired judges who filed the motion said in a statement they \u201cgreatly appreciate the seriousness with which the court is addressing these grievous allegations\u201d.<\/p>\n

Charles Littlejohn, a former employee of IRS consultant Booz Allen Hamilton, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024 after being convicted of leaking taxpayers\u2019 data, including the Trumps. The leak revealed that Trump paid little or no income tax over several years after paying millions on earnings from his reality TV show The Apprentice.<\/p>\n

Controversy has swirled around the $1.8bn \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund that many fear will benefit only claimants who seek financial restitution on claims they were targeted by prosecutions during the Biden administration, such as Trump supporters who were convicted by juries of beating police officers defending the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. But the fund is not overtly limited by political persuasion.<\/p>\n

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, now a critic of his former boss, has said he will apply, saying he suffered \u201cidentical\u201d financial and personal persecution to those who prompted the creation of the fund.<\/p>\n

The fund is facing separate challenges, including a temporary block on its establishment and any disbursements issued by a federal judge in the eastern district of Virginia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge has reopened Donald Trump\u2019s $10bn case against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), after receiving a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-612805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}