Trump withdraws – President Donald Trump moved in federal court to withdraw his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns, amid reports his administration was poised to create a $1.7 billion fund to compensate some allies who say they were wrongly inv
President Donald Trump moved on Monday to pull back his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, arguing the case should be withdrawn after a disclosure that exposed his tax returns. The step was filed in federal court in Florida, where the lawsuit was lodged last year.
The move came as attention sharpened on a separate plan discussed elsewhere: a proposed $1.7 billion fund aimed at paying some allies of the president who believe they were wrongly investigated and prosecuted.. ABC News first reported last week that Trump was prepared to drop the lawsuit as part of that kind of deal. though the court filing itself did not spell out any settlement terms.
The potential connection drew immediate fire from Democrats.. Rep.. Jamie Raskin. the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. called the fund “unconstitutional. ” saying it would function as “a political grievance fund” that Trump could use to pay friends.. Raskin argued that if people have a legitimate claim. they should bring it to court using standard due-process rules. saying the idea of distributing compensation like a pardon was “absurd.”
Trump’s supporters and the proposal’s critics also land on a long-running argument from the president: his claim that the Biden administration’s Justice Department was weaponized against him. The fund plan would reflect those grievances, even as it remains unclear who would qualify.
That backdrop includes Trump’s references to dismissed criminal charges from the period between his first and second terms. including allegations tied to conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost and retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.. It also extends to prosecutions involving several of his aides and hundreds of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S.. Capitol on Jan.. 6, 2021.
Merrick Garland. the attorney general during the Biden administration. has denied politicization allegations and has said his decisions followed the facts. evidence and the law.. Garland’s Justice Department also investigated Biden over his handling of classified information and brought separate tax and gun prosecutions against Hunter Biden.
In contrast, Trump’s current Justice Department has pursued what Trump’s allies describe as retribution and grievances.. It has brought criminal charges against some of his perceived adversaries and started a wide-ranging investigation aimed at establishing a years-long conspiracy between law enforcement and intelligence officials to damage Trump’s political future and keep him from power.. The investigation has produced no charges so far, and it is not clear whether any will.
The IRS case at the center of Monday’s filing was filed earlier this year in Florida federal court and alleges that a previous leak of confidential tax records belonging to Trump and the Trump Organization caused “reputational and financial harm. public embarrassment. unfairly tarnished their business reputations. portrayed them in a false light. and negatively affected President Trump. and the other Plaintiffs’ public standing.” Trump’s sons. Donald Trump Jr.. and Eric Trump, are also named plaintiffs.
The litigation’s pressure points go beyond civil claims.. In 2024. former IRS contractor Charles Edward Littlejohn of Washington. D.C.. was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to leaking tax information about President Trump and others to two news outlets between 2018 and 2020.. The charging documents did not name the outlets. but the timeline and descriptions aligned with reporting about Trump’s tax returns in The New York Times and with reporting about wealthy Americans’ taxes by the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica.. A 2020 New York Times report found Trump paid $750 in federal income tax in the year he first entered the White House and no income tax at all some years. citing colossal losses.
Before Monday’s move, the lawsuit showed early signs of potential resolution.. In April. lawyers for the president asked a federal judge to pause the case for 90 days while the two sides worked toward a settlement or other resolution.. The April filing said the pause “will neither prejudice the parties nor delay ultimate resolution” and that the extension would “promote judicial economy” by allowing the parties to explore “avenues that could narrow or resolve the issues efficiently.”
When asked in February about how he would handle possible damages, Trump said, “I think what we’ll do is do something for charity.” He added: “We could make it a substantial amount,” and said, “Nobody would care because it’s going to go to numerous very good charities.”
Even so, questions have persisted about the case’s independence.. A group of lawyers wrote to the court this month raising concerns about whether the Justice Department was properly insulated from the president’s control over the matter.. Ethics watchdog groups also filed friend-of-the-court briefs challenging the lawsuit.
The pattern in the court record and the separate fund discussions is that negotiations around resolution appear to run alongside a stated willingness to end the IRS fight. with the April request for a 90-day pause tied to settlement talks. and Monday’s withdrawal move arriving while a $1.7 billion compensation concept is being publicly discussed.
For now, the filing in Florida leaves the terms of any broader agreement in limbo. The court submission did not identify the details of a deal, and it did not specify who would benefit from any proposed compensation fund.
Trump IRS tax returns lawsuit $10 billion Florida federal court $1.7 billion fund Jamie Raskin leak of tax information Merrick Garland Charles Edward Littlejohn Jan. 6 2021
So he’s just gonna make it go away, cool.
10 billion?? That seems made up to me. Also why is the IRS even involved if it’s about allies getting prosecuted? sounds like another payoff.
Wait, he sued the IRS about a leak of his tax returns and now he withdraws it? That’s kinda… convenient. But I don’t get how a “fund for allies” is related, like did they leak them too or what? Democrats are freaking out so it must be something.
This is why nobody trusts the government. First they leak the taxes, then they try to hush it with a 1.7 billion fund, and then he withdraws like nothing happened. I saw somewhere that the “allies” are actually the ones who got him in trouble with the IRS in the first place?? Idk but it all stinks.