A US judge in Florida said she will review a deal between the Justice Department and President Donald Trump to settle his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), intensifying scrutiny of the heavily criticised agreement.
Trump filed the lawsuit against his own government over an alleged mishandling of his tax records that resulted in leaks to the media. The proposed agreement would create a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of political “weaponisation.”
US District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered Trump’s lawyers on Friday to respond by June 12 to a motion filed by 35 retired federal judges alleging that the settlement “is a product of collusion and is itself a fraud on the court” and to address the question of whether the case should be reopened over the contention the suit was the result of “deception” by Trump and the government.
Following the settlement, Trump moved to dismiss the lawsuit in a bid to prevent any judicial scrutiny of the deal.
Williams initially granted that dismissal on May 18, but her new order said the “court is empowered to investigate serious misconduct.”
