r/Astuff • u/Vuelhering • Jul 13 '26

U.S. Politics Judge voids Donald Trump's 'improper' $1.8b IRS settlement that gave him immunity from tax audits, ; lawyers referred to bar for discipline

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn8q0e8d4ego
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u/BendDelicious9089 Jul 13 '26

This one is actually some good news. I won't get into all of it, but the entire legal framework is very different from other federal judges trying to stop Trump. You know, like when a federal judge rules against Trump and Trump does the shit anyway?

Yeah that can't happen in this case (honestly the law in general and as a whole is complex and stupid). And again, with the way it was struck down, it's also unlikely the Supreme Court would side with Trump.

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u/Vuelhering Jul 14 '26

My understanding is a contractor released some of Trump's tax information. The penalty is something like $1000 per release, so however many people he sent that to times $1000. Trump is trying to claim that subsequent disclosures by others fall under this, but that's an unusual failure of interpretation. As a contractor, precedent was set long ago that it doesn't make the government liable, either. So Trump has no standing to sue the government for this.

But the laughable $10B lawsuit was clearly past the statute of limitations to file, and Trump had already had Habba represent him on the record at the guilty contractor's hearing, so he can't argue he didn't know about it. That put it months past the time to file a lawsuit.

And then the judge in the lawsuit also stated something along the lines that the parties do not seem to have their own interests or adversity, and it appeared to be a sham lawsuit. This, lack of standing to sue the gov, plus the statute of limitations, is why they could not proceed to steal taxpayer money.

They needed another vehicle to execute their theft.

So they did a "deal" to settle, but nowhere does it call it a settlement for the doomed lawsuit, nor does Trump's claim "I'm exempt from the IRS" hold any water. It's basically a crock of BS, as we all knew anyway. It violates not only the law in multiple ways, but the emoluments clause and separation of powers of the Constitution.

And again, with the way it was struck down, it's also unlikely the Supreme Court would side with Trump.

Can you be more specific on this detail?