Judge Rebukes Trump’s Most Direct Attempted Robbery Of The Treasury

The most concrete potential impact of this ruling is to void the “no audit” part of the agreement, now that Trump has backed away from the money:

President Trump and his family acted in bad faith in bringing a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, a federal judge ruled Monday in a scathing rebuke of the president, his attorneys and the Justice Department.

The lawsuit led to Trump’s extraordinary agreement in May with his own administration, in which the U.S. moved to create a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” and the government promised to cease all pending tax audits of Trump, his family and his businesses. The administration backed off the fund amid pushback from lawmakers, including Republicans concerned that it could be used to compensate Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The no-audit promise, however, has remained intact.

“This was an attempt to use the Court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law,” wrote Judge Kathleen Williams. Her 56-page order didn’t appear to alter the agreement between Trump and his administration; that document was never officially filed with the court.

Williams said in the ruling that Trump’s lawsuit was brought not to vindicate any violation of rights but rather to “manipulate the judicial process to pursue benefits unavailable in litigation because the Parties were not adverse.” She said that the Justice Department’s actions in the case were “untenable” and that officials abdicated their responsibility to defend the U.S. government’s interests. 

“It is telling that the DOJ, which is tasked with enforcement of United States law, has remained conspicuously absent and silent when serious questions about this matter have been raised,” she wrote.

A Justice Department spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

As part of her ruling, Williams referred Trump’s lawyer Alejandro Brito to Florida bar authorities to determine whether any disciplinary action is appropriate. She also opened the door to monetary sanctions for attorneys’ fees in the case on behalf of outside parties who weighed in on the case. And she barred Trump from calling the agreement a “settlement” in official proceedings. 

Perhaps someone in comments will know if the Florida bar has also been subject to capture by DeSantisites or if it retains enoiugh independence to sanction lawyers who committed extremely sanctionable conduct.

…to horn in on Paul’s racket, one of the lawyers involved in Trump’s Treasury heist was hired as a dean by FIU:

Is it unusual for an incoming law school dean to be banned from federal court for a year? Asking for a friend (Florida International University) storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us…

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— Anthony Michael Kreis (@anthonymkreis.bsky.social) 11:56 AM · Jul 13, 2026

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