President Trump and his sons said Friday they are appealing a court decision that blocked the deal he reached with his own administration settling his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.
The ruling, by Judge Kathleen Williams, had accused the president and his Justice Department of colluding on the settlement to avoid court scrutiny.
Under the settlement the government had agreed to create a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund to pay compensation to people who could prove they were victimized by the Biden Justice Department. The deal also granted Mr. Trump and his sons immunity for any past tax malfeasance.
Mr. Trump’s appeal came hours after he defended the fund, despite his own government saying it was moribund.
“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he said on social media.
Mr. Trump had sued the IRS claiming damages for the leak, by an IRS contractor, of his secret tax information during his first term.
He agreed to forgo any personal compensation in the settlement in exchange for the creation of the fund. He also got the immunity grant.
Judge Williams said the proceeding was a sham and declared the settlement null. She barred the president and his family from citing it as a legal authority for future actions.
“The court finds that this matter 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,” the Obama appointee wrote.
The settlement is currently a roadblock to Todd Blanche, Mr. Trump’s nominee to be attorney general.
As the acting attorney general, he signed off on the settlement.
Some Republican senators have balked at voting to confirm Mr. Blanche as full attorney general until he redraws the settlement to make clear the fund is dead and cannot be revived.
Mr. Trump’s defense of the fund Friday stiffened their resolve, fueling suspicion that Mr. Trump does want to revive the fund in the future.
