{"id":49260,"date":"2026-07-19T12:47:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T19:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=49260"},"modified":"2026-07-19T12:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T19:47:16","slug":"impeachment-is-next-says-senate-dem-after-judge-voids-trump-slush-fund-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/19\/impeachment-is-next-says-senate-dem-after-judge-voids-trump-slush-fund-settlement\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Impeachment Is Next,\u2019 Says Senate Dem After Judge Voids Trump Slush Fund Settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Trump<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US President Donald Trump watches as Todd Blanche is sworn in as deputy US attorney general on March 5, 2025 in the White House in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by White House)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a searing rebuke of Trump\u2019s self-dealing lawsuit against the IRS, Judge Kathleen Williams wrote that \u201ca court should not be a forum for a party that cynically views a lawsuit as a vehicle to achieve a predetermined outcome.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jul 13, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A progressive US senator on Monday welcomed a federal judge\u2019s ruling that found President Donald Trump\u2019s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service was an illegal act of self-dealing, while calling for the Republican to be impeached for a third time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump and his two eldest sons, Donald Trump<\/a> Jr. and Eric Trump, \u201cacted in bad faith and for an improper purpose by \u2018collusively filing a lawsuit with claims subject to multiple dispositive defenses solely to provide cover for a collusive settlement,\u2019\u201d US District Judge for the Southern District of Florida Kathleen Williams\u2014who was appointed by former President Barack Obama\u2014wrote in her 56-page ruling<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sen. Ed Markey<\/a> (D-Mass.) called<\/a> Williams\u2019 order \u201ca scalding, blistering judicial opinion calling out Trump\u2019s sham litigation, striking down his corrupt IRS immunity, and holding his sycophant lawyers to account.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a good start,\u201d the senator said. \u201cImpeachment<\/a>\u00a0is next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/MacFarlaneNews\/status\/2076696710437355957?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2076696710437355957%7Ctwgr%5E313bc9dd8e5416ba04fe026f1157a0c2ee418724%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fjudge-blocks-trump-slush-fund<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding that \u201csanctions<\/a> are appropriate here,\u201d Williams referred Trump\u2019s personal attorney Alejandro Brito to the Florida Bar for \u201cits consideration, review, and determination as to whether any disciplinary action is appropriate in light of the findings and rulings made in this order.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams also banned another one of the president\u2019s personal lawyers, Daniel Epstein\u2014who is not related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted child sex criminal and former close friend of Trump\u2014from seeking admission to practice law in the Southern District of Florida for one year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge further found that acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche\u2019s \u201capparent capacity to speak for both plaintiffs and defendants, sign a \u2018settlement\u2019 document on behalf of all parties to this action, and then repudiate part of that agreement, demonstrates that there was only one party whose interests were being represented throughout this case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January, Trump and his sons sued<\/a> the Internal Revenue Service and US Treasury Department for $10 billion over the leak of the president\u2019s tax returns by a former IRS contractor. Trump\u2019s own Department of Justice<\/a> (DOJ) then settled the case<\/a> in May by agreeing to exempt the plaintiffs from future IRS audits and create a roughly $1.776 billion settlement slush fund for people claiming they were unfairly targeted by the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beneficiaries of the so-called \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund\u201d were expected to include January 6<\/a>, 2021 Capitol insurrectionists, roughly 1,500 of whom were pardoned by Trump and dozens of whom have since been charged or convicted<\/a> for serious crimes, including child sex crimes, rape, grand larceny, burglary, home invasion, gun violations, death threats against public officials, and fatal DUI incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blanche has signaled that the DOJ will no longer pursue the creation of the slush fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams wrote in her ruling that \u201ccertainly, a court should not be a forum for a party that cynically views a lawsuit as a vehicle to achieve a predetermined outcome: \u2018I\u2019m suing myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPresident Trump did not pursue his claims until he once again occupied the White House<\/a> and had appointed his former lawyer, and the former lawyer of persons who are putative beneficiaries of the \u2018Anti-Weaponization Fund,c\u2019 to prominent positions in the DOJ,\u201d she continued. \u201cThese officials then negotiated on behalf of the United States<\/a>, with his current lawyers, including his former White House counsel, to reach a \u2018settlement.\u2019 It is risible to suggest that there was ever adverseness between the parties.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven the fund amount\u2014$1.776 billion\u2014speaks of a \u2018branding\u2019 effort rather than a deliberate and thoughtful calculation of damages,\u201d the judge added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for Trump\u2019s legal team responded to Monday\u2019s order in a statement asserting that \u201cthe IRS wrongly allowed a rogue, politically motivated employee to leak private and confidential information about President Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization to The New York Times<\/a>, ProPublica, and other left-wing news outlets, which was then illegally released to millions of people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPresident Trump continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defenders of the rule of law<\/a> welcomed Monday\u2019s ruling, with Robert Weissman and Lisa Gilbert, co-presidents of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen<\/a>, taking a swipe<\/a> at Trump\u2019s \u201cbrilliant idea of suing the government he runs and resolving the lawsuit with the creation of an illegal and unconstitutional nearly $1.8 billion slush fund, paid for at taxpayer expense and likely to be distributed to January 6 insurrectionists, among others, as well with as an immunity deal protecting Trump and his family from IRS investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cActing Attorney General Todd Blanche was a willing participant in this fraud on the court and the American people,\u201d the pair added. \u201cIf the Senate needed an additional reason not to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general, it just got it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump watches as Todd Blanche is sworn in as deputy US attorney general on March 5, 2025 in the White House in Washington, DC. \u00a0(Photo by White House) In a searing rebuke of Trump\u2019s self-dealing lawsuit against the IRS, Judge Kathleen Williams wrote that \u201ca court should… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2225],"tags":[1992,335],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49260"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49261,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49260\/revisions\/49261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}