Judge Kathleen Williams has had enough.
In a brief but devastating order Friday, the federal judge in Miami reopened Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS — a case Trump had voluntarily dismissed last week specifically to avoid her scrutiny — and ordered Trump’s lawyers to explain by June 12th why she shouldn’t find that the entire scheme was a fraud perpetrated against her court.
The judge’s language was pointed and precise. She said she wanted to investigate “grievous allegations” that the deal to resolve the case was “premised on deception.” She asserted that she was “empowered to investigate serious misconduct” and demanded answers to two devastating questions: was “the court the victim of a fraud,” and did Trump collude with his own government to settle the case specifically “to avoid judicial scrutiny”?
The answer to both questions, based on everything that has already been reported, appears to be yes.
Judge Williams had been circling this case for weeks before Trump pulled it. She had openly questioned how Trump could sue an agency he controls, with government lawyers who answer to him, producing a settlement negotiated with officials he appointed. She ordered both sides to explain whether they were actually adversaries or secretly colluding. Trump dismissed the case the day before those briefs were due.
Then, after she closed it, the Justice Department released not one but two extraordinary agreements — a $1.776 billion fund to compensate Trump’s allies, and a separate one-page document permanently barring the IRS from ever auditing Trump, his family, or his businesses. Agreements that had apparently been negotiated while the case was supposedly active before her court.
Judge Williams cited the New York Times report revealing that the IRS had prepared a 25-page memo outlining strong defenses against Trump’s suit — defenses the Justice Department never raised in court, never filed, never mentioned.
Her order came directly in response to the filing by 35 former federal judges — appointed by presidents of both parties — who called the scheme a fraud and urged her to reopen the case.
She listened.
“We stand ready to work with the court as it investigates this matter,” said Norman Eisen, who represented the former judges.
Trump tried to flip the table before she could see the cards. She just put them back on the table.
I can’t wait to see the Justice Department try to explain this one!