Trump Lawyers: No Collusion With Trump Administration To Create 'anti-weaponization' Fund

Attorneys for President Donald Trump are rejecting allegations that they defrauded a federal court in Florida by bringing a lawsuit against the IRS — only to settle with the Trump-led Justice Department in a deal crafted to establish a so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

The Friday night filing with a federal judge in Miami was the first public defense of the settlement by Trump’s private attorneys since it came under intense attack by lawmakers, prompting the administration to retreat from the planned $1.8 billion fund for victims of allegedly politicized investigations and indictments.

Trump sued the agency for $10 billion in January over the 2020 leak of his tax returns by an IRS contractor who subsequently pleaded guilty to the breach. The lawsuit raised immediate questions about a conflict raised by the sitting president suing an agency he oversees. But Trump quickly abandoned the suit as details about the settlement began to emerge.

Trump’s lawyers invoked a federal court rule that allows plaintiffs in a case to drop it early in the litigation without explanation or substantive involvement by the judge.

On the same day the suit was dismissed, the settlement — which included the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and sweeping protection from IRS audits for Trump’s family and businesses — was announced by the Justice Department.

U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams closed out Trump’s lawsuit last month in response to Trump’s request to drop it.

However, 35 former federal judges subsequently urged Williams to reopen the case, arguing that the court had been defrauded by a lawsuit that was a sham from the outset.

Williams, an Obama appointee, called the former judges’ allegations “grievous” and ordered Trump’s attorneys to respond to them in writing. She did not order any response from government lawyers, who never formally appeared in the litigation.

The filing Friday from Trump’s legal team urged Williams to abandon her nascent inquiry, saying that once the case was dismissed, her role in the matter had ended. No matter the validity of the subsequent settlement with the Justice Department, Trump’s lawyers said, the court has no business superintending its terms. The former judges had no role in the case, and certainly no power to revive a lawsuit that had already been dismissed, they argued.

“Settlement is not evidence of collusion, which did not exist,” Trump’s attorneys contended, “it is evidence of a rational litigation decision.”

Just prior to the settlement, Williams had raised questions about whether the parties to the case were truly adverse since Trump had ultimate control over both the attorneys representing him and the U.S. government. However, the submission Friday stresses that two of Trump’s sons and the Trump Organization were plaintiffs in the case alongside the president.

The filing by Trump’s attorneys suggests that if Williams formally reopens the case, Trump will immediately ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to shut it down.