Trump-IRS case should be reopened so court can probe fraud: Ex-judges
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, May 20, 2026. Trump is heading to Connecticut to deliver the commencement speech at the United States Coast Guard Academy.
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President Donald Trump’s recently filed $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service needs to be reopened so the judge overseeing the case can investigate “whether there was fraud.” 35 former federal judges defended Wednesday.
Trump, his two eldest sons and the Trump Organization abruptly dropped their lawsuits against the IRS and Treasury Department on May 18, based on leaks of tax information by a former IRS employee in 2019 and 2020.
Accordingly, Federal Judge Kathleen Williams of Miami District Court ordered the case dismissed prejudice, he notes that this move cancels an upcoming deadline on efforts to review the issue.
He also noted in his decision that the plaintiffs did not make any reference to a settlement and the defendants did not submit any settlement documents.
On the same day, the Ministry of Justice made a statement. compromise agreement In this case, the US attorney general will establish $ 1.776 billion “Anti-Armament Fund.”
A day later, the Justice Department announced an addendum to the agreement that effectively shielded the plaintiffs and some affiliates from any IRS enforcement action on their past tax returns.
“The court was deceived,” the former judges wrote in one of their articles. application to court Wednesday afternoon.
“Although Plaintiffs do not mention any remedy in their Notice, [DOJ] “Shortly after the plaintiffs filed their dismissal, they publicly announced that this case had been ‘solved,'” they wrote.
They argued that this agreement “raises profound questions about the parties’ indecisiveness towards the Court and manipulation of the judicial system, which threatens to undermine confidence in the administration of justice.”
Retired judges joining the filing include J. Michael Luttig, who testified before the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Former judges try to ‘raise the issue of fraud’ Rule 60 Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which they said allowed Williams to reopen the case. As an alternative, they urged Williams to reopen the case on his own.
In both cases, they want the court to “set aside the decision in this case” and allow it to “continue its investigation into whether there is a genuine underlying case or dispute or, conversely, whether this ‘case’ that the parties claim to have ‘resolved’ is a fraud on the part of the Court.”
The judges argued that the agreement “was the product of collusion and a fraud on the part of the Court itself.” But they argued that Williams did not need an immediate agreement to overturn his dismissal.
The reopening of the case “will allow the Court to launch an investigation into whether the Court has been deceived, including the existence of an underlying case or dispute and the so-called arm’s length negotiations undertaken to resolve it.”
The White House referred CNBC to the Department of Justice, but the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the referral. The IRS and the Trump Organization did not immediately comment on the filing.
