US judge voids Trump’s settlement with Internal Revenue Service

WASHINGTON - A US judge on July 13 voided President Donald Trump’s settlement with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that gave him and his companies sweeping tax protections and initially set up a nearly US$1.8 billion (S$2.3 billion) government fund to pay victims of so-called government weaponisation that was later abandoned.

US District Judge Kathleen Williams found that Trump and the IRS, which he oversees as president, were not truly adverse to each other as is required in civil lawsuits under the US Constitution.

Williams referred a Trump lawyer in the case and senior Justice Department officials who signed off on the settlement to state bar authorities to determine if their actions violated legal ethics rules.

“This action was never about a party seeking judicial resolution of a legal issue or a factual dispute,” Williams wrote.

The judge said it was instead an attempt to “provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the president and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law.” REUTERS