President Donald Trump sued the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for $US10 billion ($13.9 billion), and a federal judge was pressing the Justice Department to explain how it could muster an independent defence of the agency against the man who ultimately controlled it. Behind the scenes, a tight-knit group of lawyers, all of whom had allegiance to Trump, addressed the vexing problem of how to settle the lawsuit. The lawyers’ solution did not give Trump what his lawsuit had demanded: simply moving funds from the Treasury Department into his own pocket. But the agreement that was reached was still a big victory for the president and his allies: It set up a $US1.8 billion fund to pay people deemed to have been harmed by so-called government weaponisation – possibly including hundreds of rioters charged with storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021 – and released Trump and his businesses from potentially costly IRS audits.
President Donald Trump sued the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for $US10 billion ($13.9 billion), and a federal judge was pressing the Justice Department to explain how it could muster an independent defence of the agency against the man who ultimately controlled it.
Behind the scenes, a tight-knit group of lawyers, all of whom had allegiance to Trump, addressed the vexing problem of how to settle the lawsuit. On one side of the talks was a Justice Department run by Todd Blanche, the acting attorney-general who once served as Trump’s criminal defence lawyer. On the other was the president’s private lawyers, among them Boris Epshteyn, who was a former client of Blanche’s.
Epshteyn played a significant role in advancing the deal to end the suit, co-ordinating and holding discussions with all sides involved: Trump, the president’s personal lawyers, and Justice Department officials. The discussions were so closely held that some senior White House officials were blindsided, learning of them only once the agreement was nearly complete. In the end, the lawyers’ solution did not give Trump what his lawsuit had demanded: simply moving funds from the Treasury Department into his own pocket.
But the agreement that was reached was still a big victory for the president and his allies: It set up a $US1.8 billion fund to pay people deemed to have been harmed by so-called government weaponisation – possibly including hundreds of rioters charged with storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021 – and released Trump and his businesses from potentially costly IRS audits. This article is based on interviews with more than a dozen people who discussed internal deliberations about the IRS suit on the condition of anonymity.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment. Epshteyn declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Justice Department said that anyone who believed they were a victim of government weaponisation could apply for money from the fund, claiming that many people had been victimised by the Biden administration. The New York Times Much is still unknown about how the arrangement came about.
But the plan drafted by a group of Trump allies posed conflicts of interest that are remarkable, even for an administration riddled with them. As questions have mounted about the nature of the deal, the federal judge who oversaw the lawsuit, Kathleen Williams, took the extraordinary step on Friday of revisiting the case, asking whether the parties had deceived her.
When the details of the agreement were first revealed two weeks ago, Democrats and former government officials lodged accusations of corruption and self-dealing, and even some Republicans reacted with scornful disbelief. Some GOP senators were so angry that they abandoned plans to approve a measure to finance the administration’s immigration crackdown. Within days of the agreement becoming public, and before the judge raised questions about it, senior administration officials began preparing to eliminate the fund amid the intense blowback.
The agreement appeared to have emerged abruptly, but it fused two ideas that had been kicking around in Trump’s circle for years: a desire by him and his family to avoid extensive tax audits, and a longing by his allies to obtain financial restitution for legal wrongs they claimed to have suffered during the Biden administration
IRS Lawsuit Trump Justice Department IRS Audits Government Weaponisation Biden Administration Corruption Self-Dealing Fund Immigration Crackdown IRS Audits Government Weaponisation Biden Administration Corruption Self-Dealing
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