President Donald Trump attends a bilateral meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on the sidelines of the G7 summit on June 17, 2026 in Evian-les-Bains, France. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump “acted in bad faith” when he quickly dropped his tax return lawsuit and directed his Cabinet members to create a $1.8 billion “anti-gun” fund, a federal judge in Florida ruled Monday.
Federal Judge Kathleen Williams of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida condemned Trump, his sons Eric and Don Trump Jr. and their private Trump Organization for using the presidency to “manipulate the judicial process to obtain benefits not available in litigation.”
The Trumps and their private company voluntarily dropped a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in May in exchange for the Departments of Justice and Finance to establish a $1.776 billion fund for alleged “victims of litigation.”
criticism pounced about the settlement as a “slush fund” for “cop thugs,” referring to defendants on Jan. 6 who attacked police officers. Trump pardoned all of the January 6 rioters on the first day of his second term.
The Justice Department claimed the fund was open to victims of any political leanings.
Williams, who was appointed during President Barack Obama’s first term, noted in her order that the pot of settlement money was created to “fund claims based on events, including those arising from, among other things, the Mar-a-Lago documents case and the events of January 6, 2021.”
The Settlement AgreementThe law, signed May 18 by Deputy Attorney General Stanley Woodward and IRS Chief Frank Bisignano, forever exempts Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization from federal law enforcement and tax enforcement.
“No sitting president has ever sued federal agencies under his complete control for the purpose of obtaining monetary benefits or benefits that benefit him, his family, and his associates. The failure of counsel in this case to address in this filing the connection between this Article II prohibition and the benefits provided by the ‘settlement’ is a glaring omission indicative of lead plaintiff’s control,” Williams wrote in the 56-page Page command.
Lawyers, Trump and family quoted
Williams referred Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito, to the Florida Bar for consideration of possible disciplinary action and will bar applications from Trump’s other attorney, Daniel Z. Epstein, to the Southern District of Florida for at least a year.
Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization are “prohibited from referring to the purported ‘settlement agreement’ or from using, offering, admitting or quoting its terms in any judicial, administrative, regulatory, arbitration or other official proceeding as evidence of an ‘agreement’ reached in this matter,” Williams wrote.
In addition, it ordered the Trumps and their company to reimburse the fees of lawyers hired by the court to review Trump’s case against the IRS, an agency under his control as president.
35 former judges
The president and his family sued the IRS in January over a government contractor’s release of their tax information to news media in tardy 2019. The contractor was already there sentenced for the leak in early 2024.
The creation of the “Anti-Gun” Fund created a spark Complaintsincluding two former ones police Officers stationed at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Trump’s IRS case was revived in tardy May when 35 former federal judges intervened, arguing that the settlement fund was “a product of collusion and itself a fraud on the court.”
Lawyers representing the former federal judges applauded Williams’ ruling.
“The Court’s opinion is a stunning victory for the rule of law. We are proud to represent these former justices in presenting the arguments adopted by the Court,” said a statement from Norm Eisen, co-founder and board member of Democracy Defenders Action, Matt Platkin, founding partner of Platkin LLP, and Susman Godfrey.
The Trumps and their private business maintained The president sued the IRS in his personal capacity, saying the court had no authority to review the settlement.
In her order Monday, Williams said the court had refused to accept “the credulous attempt to remove President Trump’s current job title from the understanding of what happened here.”
Promise to abolish the fund
Outrage over the fund, including from members of Trump’s own party, delayed the Senate’s eventual passage of legislation to fund Trump’s mass deportation program for the remainder of his term.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified before Congress on June 2 that the administration would do so scrap the fund.
The White House referred States Newsroom to the president’s personal lawyers for comment.
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said in a statement: “The IRS wrongfully allowed a fraudulent, politically motivated employee to leak private and confidential information about President Trump, his family and the Trump Organization to the New York Times, ProPublica and other left-wing news outlets, which was then illegally distributed to millions of people. President Trump continues to hold accountable those who do injustice to America and Americans.”
The justice and finance ministries did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
