Trump and his lawyers on Monday moved to drop the $10 Billion lawsuit in which his Department of (In)Justice was defending the IRS over leaks of his tax returns.
The disclosure was made in a filing in a Florida Federal Court where the lawsuit was filed last year.
The move constitutes an end-run around the legal system, effectively stripping Judge Kathleen Williams, who has been overseeing the case in the Southern District of Florida, of her normal role in approving a formal settlement agreement. By dismissing the case in its entirety, Trump essentially freed his hand to reach a deal with administration officials without any judicial oversight.
News reports from last week indicated that the Trump administration was contemplating settling for a $1.7 billion fund to pay Trump allies for their grievances against perceived “weaponization” from the hand of Biden’s DOJ with Merrick Garland at the helm.
Jamie Raskin, top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called the idea “unconstitutional” and characterized it as a personal political grievance slush fund to pay off his friends.
“If these people have a valid cause of action, they should bring it to the court like every other American does, and use the system of due process, and proving things by clear and convincing evidence, or a preponderance of evidence, go and prove it. But the idea that Donald Trump can just pass it out like a pardon is absurd,” he added.