The president, who sued his own administration in January over the leak of his tax returns, struck an agreement with the IRS in late May to dismiss the case, with the DOJ then creating an “anti-weaponization” fund to provide payments to those who claim to have been wronged by the government.
“The appellants did not submit or offer any evidence to explain their litigation conduct or demonstrate that the lawsuit and the settlement were not collusive. Given the record before us, the appellants have not made a strong showing that the district court committed clear error in its collusion and bad faith findings,” a three-judge panel for the 11th Circuit wrote in its opinion Tuesday.
Williams’s ruling was particularly critical of Trump, noting that the president filed the suit years after the leak, when he had returned to office and had the power to fire everyone.
In sum, the facts before this Court demonstrate there was never adverseness between the Parties; there was never a case or controversy; and there was never a question as to who would prevail,” Williams wrote in the 56-page filing.
“The Court determines that Plaintiffs improperly employed this lawsuit to justify a particular award in this matter — access to taxpayer funds and exemption from audits and other investigations — which was accomplished by leveraging control over Defendants,” she wrote later, adding at the time that the suit was “brought to manipulate the judicial process.”
Williams found that Trump’s $10 billion case against the IRS was “brought for an improper purpose — to gain the imprimatur of judicial legitimacy for a ‘settlement’ that had no viable basis in law or fact.”
Appeals court backs finding Trump colluded with IRS, Treasury — The Hill
An appeals court Tuesday sided with a lower court judge who determined President Trump colluded with the Department of Justice (DOJ) in bringing and later dismissing a case seeking $10 billion in damages from the IRS.