![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/24_UFC_Gallery_MJO.JPG\" "\\"President")
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President Donald Trump attends UFC 327 at the Kaseya Center on Saturday, April 11, 2026, in downtown Miami, Fla.<\/p>\n
Photo by Matias J. Ocner<\/p>\n
mocner@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
A federal judge in Miami ruled Monday that President Donald Trump\u2019s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service was \u201cbrought for an improper purpose\u201d to lend legitimacy to the Justice Department\u2019s resolution of tax claims against the president, his family and their companies \u2014 including the creation of a $1.8 billion fund that would compensate victims of \u201cgovernment weaponization.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams rejected the president\u2019s assertion that the sweeping tax and audit protections for him and his family in the settlement with the IRS were legitimate, noting the terms brokered by Trump\u2019s Justice Department were based on a deception of her court for both personal and political ends.<\/p>\n
Her ruling, pending a possible appeal, effectively voided the settlement by concluding that the two parties \u2014 Trump and the IRS \u2014 were not truly fighting against each other in court. The decision prevents those involved with the Miami case \u2014 including Trump and his sons \u2014 from referring to the settlement or citing its terms in future legal proceedings, which means the IRS could move forward with future audits into Trump\u2019s tax claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe power to resolve [this tax dispute] was never a question before this Court. Whether Executive Branch actors can privately agree to give themselves and their former clients blanket immunities and billions of dollars in tax monies for legally undefined grievances was never an issue advanced to this Court,\u201d Williams wrote in her 56-page order. \u201cThe question is whether the Parties could do so by claiming to be adverse and engaging the legitimacy of a court proceeding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe answer is a resounding \u2018no\u2019: the Lead Plaintiff [Trump] and the Government are one, a fully realized unitary interest,\u201d thus rendering \u201cthis lawsuit non-adversarial, collusive, and jurisdictionally improper.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd because this fact was so obvious and so insurmountable, the Court finds that this matter was brought for an improper purpose \u2014 to gain the imprimatur of judicial legitimacy for a \u2018settlement\u2019 that had no viable basis in law or fact,\u201d Williams continued. \u201cAs was observed in another matter brought in this [South Florida] District, \u2018this case is part of Mr. Trump\u2019s pattern of misusing the courts to serve political purposes.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n
In the order, Williams also referred Alejandro Brito, one of the lawyers who brought Trump\u2019s case against the IRS in Miami, to the Florida Bar for potential disciplinary proceedings. Brito is a Coral Gables-based attorney who has represented Trump in defamation cases against news media. She also barred another of Trump\u2019s lawyers, Daniel Z. Epstein, from applying to appear in the Southern District of Florida for one year. Epstein, a former special assistant to the president, was recently named the interim dean of the Florida International University College of Law.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: \u2018A political decision\u2019: FIU law school community uneasy over new dean with Trump ties<\/a><\/p>\n The judge added that she would forward her order to the New York Bar, which is already investigating Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general whom Trump recently nominated as the permanent head of the Justice Department.<\/p>\n In late May, Williams launched the inquiry that threatened to reopen the controversial case, which Trump and his administration had settled earlier that month.<\/p>\n At the behest of dozens of retired federal judges, Williams directed Trump\u2019s attorneys to file a response by June rebutting allegations that his lawsuit was merely a pretext to the settlement, which was not made public until after Williams had agreed to close the case.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Court was deceived,\u201d the request by the former federal judges reads.<\/p>\n Williams\u2019 ruling will likely continue to roil Washington, where the deal arranged between the president, IRS and Justice Department was met with bipartisan outrage and questions about how the president could sue and settle with his own administration. Also, in May, a federal judge in Virginia blocked the Trump administration from releasing money from the newly created fund until a lawsuit challenging the validity of the settlement was resolved.<\/p>\n The first provision of the settlement created the $1.8 billion fund aimed at compensating Trump supporters who say they were the victims of so-called government weaponization. But the notion of his administration paying damages to hundreds of people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, enraged many lawmakers. Blanche backed down and said the Justice Department would not implement the fund.<\/p>\n The second provision granted the president, his family and their businesses unprecedented immunity from inquiries into their taxes. Blanche directed the IRS to stop ongoing audits and any new investigations of tax returns the Trumps had already filed. That part of the settlement remains in effect, saving the Trump and his family a potentially massive tax bill. The New York Times reported in 2020<\/a> that Trump was in a decade-long audit battle with the IRS over a claimed $72.9 million tax refund, and losing that battle could cost him more than $100 million.<\/p>\n $10 billion lawsuit<\/p>\n In January, Trump and his son, Eric Trump, filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, alleging that the agency\u2019s former contractor Charles \u201cChaz\u201d Littlejohn, leaked their tax returns to media outlets in 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n But before the lawsuit ever advanced in court, Trump requested that the case be voluntarily dismissed. Then the Department of Justice announced that, instead of Trump receiving any monetary payment or damages of any kind, he would get a formal apology and that Blanche would launch the\u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey have agreed, in exchange for the creation of this fund, to drop their pending lawsuit with prejudice, and also withdraw two administrative claims including for damages resulting from the unlawful raid of Mar-a-Lago and the Russia-collusion hoax,\u201d a Justice Department press release said. It alluded to the Biden administration\u2019s classified documents case against Trump and the FBI\u2019s probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election won by Trump.<\/p>\n This immediately generated buzz among hundreds of people Trump pardoned for their roles in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with many announcing their intention to pursue payouts. This group included Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader from Miami, who was pardoned by Trump after serving only three years of his 22-year sentence for his role in planning the Jan. 6 attack.<\/p>\n