A bipartisan group of 35 former federal judges on Wednesday urged a federal judge in Miami to reopen President Donald Trump’s $10 billion IRS lawsuit, arguing that a post-dismissal agreement may have involved fraud and manipulation of the judicial process.
Details on the dismissed lawsuit and the judges’ call to reopen it
In the motion filed in the Federal District Court in Miami, the judges noted that Judge Kathleen M. Williams dismissed the case with prejudice after Trump voluntarily dropped the lawsuit against the IRS and the Treasury Department. The underlying case stemmed from allegations that a former IRS contractor disclosed sensitive tax information in 2019 and 2020, according to the filing, CNBC and The New York Times.
Williams issued the ruling before the court could fully resolve questions about whether it had jurisdiction or if litigation was collusive, the judges argued. They filed the motion under a specific rule, seeking to have the judgment set aside and the case reopened.
“The Court was deceived,” the ex-judges wrote in the court filing.
“Despite Plaintiffs not having mentioned any settlement in their Notice, the [DOJ] publicly announced a ‘settlement’ of this action shortly after Plaintiffs filed their dismissal,” they continued in the motion.
Will some Jan. 6 participants receive reparations?
The judges also argued that after the dismissal, the Department of Justice announced a “settlement” that created a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” granting broad legal protections and tax-related benefits to Trump, his family and associated entities, terms they say were never disclosed to the court.
Blavity reported that the fund could compensate some people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. The proposal earlier this month, which several Republican lawmakers confirmed, drew criticism from Black Americans and lawmakers who support slavery reparations, which have faced ongoing political opposition.
Retired judge J. Michael Luttig is among those who joined the filing and previously testified before the House select committee investigating the 2021 Capitol riot, according to CNBC.
He and the other judges claimed the parties’ actions raise serious concerns about candor to the court and potential “fraud on the court,” and asked the judge to reopen the case under Rule 60 to investigate.
The judges stated that the motion to reopen the case “will allow the Court to commence an inquiry into whether the Court was deceived, including with respect to the existence of an underlying case or controversy and any purported arm’s-length negotiations undertaken to resolve it.”