A federal judge Monday said a controversial lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump against the IRS sought to “manipulate the judicial process” and that he acted in bad faith in bringing it.
US District Judge Kathleen Williams is ordering sanctions for the attorneys involved in the lawsuit, which led to an attempt to create the now-defunct $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund for allies of the president. It was also used to justify a Trump administration order giving Trump and his businesses amnesty for any past tax issues.
Trump still got the sweetheart deal: the IRS can never investigate him again.
If you read the article you’ll see that the judge also tossed that as grossly illegal and a violation of the offices’ responsibilities.
A deal which is basically worthless. The next administration can ignore it and the most Trump can do is sue. And that negates the whole point of the deal which was to avoid needing to defend the scheme in court. Since the deal is legally indefensible, he’s very unlikely to win that case.
My hope is that can be nullified or at least ignored by the next administration (if we have one). I’m hoping that it isn’t getting much attention because Trump pretty much has the power to direct the IRS to terminate any investigations that he wants. But trying to rope it in with this “settlement agreement” perhaps makes the corruption seem a tiny bit less obvious because then it’s not Trump’s executive order but, rather, a settlement negotiated by his legal team. A stupid distinction, but his administration frequently looks for ways to paint a turd so that his supporters will gobble it up without question.