A federal judge in Florida has recognized the identity of President Donald Trump. lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service was brought in “bad faith” for an “improper purpose” – and imposed sanctions on some of those involved.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, an Obama appointee, said the lawsuit “was not brought to vindicate rights” but to “manipulate the legal process.”
Williams emphasized that despite Trump’s lawyer’s arguments to the contrary, these were not ordinary litigants. She pointed out that as president, Trump had jurisdiction over the Justice Department, the Treasury Department and the IRS.
“After a review of the record and the parties’ statements, the Court refuses to adopt or acquiesce in the credulous exercise of separating President Trump’s current job title from the understanding of what happened here,” the judge wrote.
She said the facts of the case show it was “an attempt to use the Court to give some legitimacy to an agreement to provide immunity to individuals and entities affiliated with the President” while spending billions of taxpayer dollars.
She said the facts of the case demonstrate “that there was never any opposition between the parties; there has never been any affair or controversy; and there was never a question of who would win.”
“Even the Fund’s size – $1.776 billion – reflects a branding effort rather than a deliberate and considered calculation of damages,” Williams wrote.
She noted that the Justice Department could have easily mounted a defense in the lawsuit because Trump waited too long to file his complaint, but they instead chose to cut a deal.
She ordered sanctions against a number of those involved, including Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Associate AG Stanley Woodward. She requested that a copy of her findings be sent to the bars of New York and Washington, DC, “where disciplinary proceedings are currently underway” against Blanche and Woodward for alleged ethics violations.
She also referred one of Trump’s attorneys, Alejandro Brito, to the Florida Bar “for consideration, review and determination as to whether disciplinary action is appropriate in light of the findings and rulings in this order.”
Brito did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
She ruled that future requests from another attorney involved in the negotiations, Daniel Z. Epstein, vice president of America First Legal, to join cases in the Southern District of Florida “would be DENIED for one year or until further orders of this Court.” A request for comment was not immediately returned.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said: “The IRS wrongly allowed a rogue, politically motivated employee to disclose private and confidential information about President Trump, his family and the Trump Organization to the New York Times, ProPublica and other left-wing media outlets, which was then illegally leaked to millions of people. President Trump continues to hold accountable those who are harming America and Americans.”
Spokespeople for the Treasury Department and DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this year, Trump the IRS sued and the Treasury for $10 billion, alleging they failed to take necessary steps to prevent a former IRS contractor from improperly disclosing his tax returns, as well as those of his sons and his company, to the media.
They voluntarily withdrew their case two days before the scheduled date to submit a case explaining why this was appropriate. They then announced the “anti-arms fund” deal and an agreement immunizing Trump and his family from IRS audits and investigations. Blanche signed this last directive.
Blanche later said that both sides had agreed to eliminate the “anti-arms” fund, but he refused requests from Congress to put this in a written statement and also did not make a similar statement regarding the audit agreement. He will likely be pressed on both issues during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
Williams’ order does not order any action on the fund or the immunity agreement, likely because they were entered into without court approval, but she ordered that the government cannot present the agreements as part of a court settlement.
“President Trump, the Trump Organization, and anyone associated with Trump or the Trump Organization are prohibited from ‘referring to the purported ‘settlement agreement,’ or using, offering, admitting, or citing any of its provisions in any judicial, administrative, regulatory, arbitration, or other formal proceeding as evidence of a ‘settlement’ reached in this matter,” she wrote.
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