“I’m supposed to work out a settlement with myself.” Donald Trump said it out loud. He wasn’t joking. In January, he sued the IRS over leaked tax returns. It was a bizarre setup. The President sued an agency he ran, defended by DOJ lawyers who answered to him. By May, the deal was done. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced a staggering $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded settlement. It covered alleged victims of “lawfare” and handed Trump’s family blanket immunity from federal tax prosecutions. Now, his lawyers are telling a federal judge this was all perfectly normal.
It smells rotten. Naturally, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams smelled it too. She demanded to know if this was a real fight or a sham. To dodge her questions, Trump abruptly dropped the lawsuit. But the drama didn’t die there. Thirty-five former federal judges stepped in, urging Williams to reopen the case because the court had been defrauded. Trump’s legal team, led by Alejandro Brito, hit back on Monday. They claim there is “no evidence” of fraud. They call the accusations pure fantasy.
Brito’s brief is a masterclass in gaslighting. He argues the court has no power to touch the settlement. According to him, the DOJ can hand out billions whenever it wants, lawsuit or no lawsuit. He even argues the case was inherently adversarial because Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization were co-plaintiffs. They aren’t federal employees, you see. So it must be a real fight. It is a hilarious defense.
The lawsuit was dead on arrival. The plaintiffs missed the strict statutory filing deadlines. More importantly, the leaker, Charles Littlejohn, was an outside contractor, not an IRS employee. Under the law, that distinction matters. In similar lawsuits filed by other billionaires, like Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin, the DOJ fought tooth and nail. They argued contractors don’t count. They won key dismissals. Griffin eventually settled for a simple apology.
Trump got a lot more than an apology. He got $1.8 billion and a get-out-of-jail-free card. Why did the DOJ roll over? In Trump’s case, the government didn’t file a single objection. Not one. Trump’s lawyers claim this was just a “litigation judgment.” They want us to believe the cost of defending the suit was higher than the $1.8 billion payout. That is mathematically absurd. The IRS also walked away from pending tax disputes against Trump worth over $100 million.
The math doesn’t work. The logic doesn’t hold. The only “institutional reason” for this surrender is obvious. The DOJ lawyers worked for the plaintiff. They wanted to keep their boss happy. Trump’s legal team insists his status as the ultimate boss had nothing to do with the windfall. They expect us to believe it. We aren’t that stupid.
