{"id":954,"date":"2026-07-13T19:42:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T19:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=954"},"modified":"2026-07-13T19:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T19:42:23","slug":"there-was-never-a-case-judge-tosses-trump-irs-settlement-accuses-admin-of-settling-with-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=954","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThere was never a case\u201d: Judge tosses Trump IRS settlement, accuses admin of settling with itself"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A federal judge threw out a settlement between the IRS and Donald Trump, concluding that the two parties to the case being settled were one and the same.<\/p>\n

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In her , U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams accused the entire case of being a bit of play-acting between the president and an executive department entirely under his control. Williams said that Trump and the Treasury were using a sham case to lend \u201clegitimacy\u201d to a redirection of taxpayer funds toward Trump and his allies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis action was never about a party seeking judicial resolution of a legal issue or a factual dispute. The nature of the suit itself and the conduct of the Parties and counsel from its filing make plain that 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,\u201d she wrote. \u201cCourt finds that this matter was brought for an improper purpose\u2014to gain the imprimatur of judicial legitimacy for a \u2018settlement\u2019 that had no viable basis in law or fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams found that Trump\u2019s power over the Treasury stretched the adversary system of law in the United States past its breaking point.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdverseness is not determined merely by affixing the labels \u2018plaintiff\u2019 and \u2018defendant\u2019 to the parties,\u201d she explained. \u201cDefendants are the Treasury Department\u2014an Executive agency\u2014and the IRS, the largest bureau of the Treasury Department. Both Defendants are unquestionably part of the Executive Branch and ultimately answer to its Chief Executive, President Trump.<\/p>\n

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As part of the settlement of a $10 billion lawsuit filed by Trump and his sons against the IRS, a $1.7 billion fund for payments to people who had been targeted by the federal government under previous administrations. Critics worried that this vaguely defined fund was a way for Trump to pass money to himself, his allies and Jan. 6 rioters. Williams tossed this settlement, saying that there was \u201ccase\u201d that needed to be settled in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was never adverseness between the parties; there was never a case or controversy; and there was never a question as to who would prevail,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Williams also pushed disciplinary action for several of Trump\u2019s attorneys. She referred attorney Alejandro Brito to the Florida Bar. She ordered the Southern District of Florida to deny any requests from attorney Daniel Epstein to join cases in the district for one year.<\/p>\n

Read more Kash Patel fuels conspiracy theories about Lindsey Graham\u2019s death<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge Kathleen Williams said that the case flouted constitutional restrictions against self-dealing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5,76,296,1282,1283],"class_list":["post-954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-donald-trump","tag-irs","tag-jan-6","tag-lawsuit","tag-scott-bessent"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cThere was never a case\u201d: Judge tosses Trump IRS settlement, accuses admin of settling with itself - Relocation Across America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=954\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cThere was never a case\u201d: Judge tosses Trump IRS settlement, accuses admin of settling with itself - Relocation Across America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Judge Kathleen Williams said that the case flouted constitutional restrictions against self-dealing.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=954\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Relocation Across America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-13T19:42:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=954#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=954\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba2572fa1a7a241291fdc36bdae80fcf\"},\"headline\":\"\u201cThere was never a case\u201d: Judge tosses Trump IRS settlement, accuses admin of settling with itself\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-13T19:42:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=954\"},\"wordCount\":468,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=954#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/c0a2bc9ca2c5ee1e59eac335c54188eb.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Donald Trump\",\"IRS\",\"Jan. 6\",\"Lawsuit\",\"Scott Bessent\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=954#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=954\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=954\",\"name\":\"\u201cThere was never a case\u201d: Judge tosses Trump IRS settlement, accuses admin of settling with itself - Relocation Across America\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=954#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=954#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/c0a2bc9ca2c5ee1e59eac335c54188eb.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-13T19:42:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba2572fa1a7a241291fdc36bdae80fcf\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=954#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=954\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=954#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/c0a2bc9ca2c5ee1e59eac335c54188eb.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/c0a2bc9ca2c5ee1e59eac335c54188eb.jpg\",\"width\":1692,\"height\":1142,\"caption\":\"US President Donald Trump takes questions from journalists after announcing the US Navy\u2019s new Golden Fleet initiative, unveiling a new class of warships, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on December 22, 2025. 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