WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump defended his highly criticized, nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” settlement fund on social media and in a Cabinet meeting Friday, as two key Republican senators withheld support for the president’s nominee for attorney general over Trump’s refusal to formally end the pot of money.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that the fund, in exchange for him dropping his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, would not benefit him, but rather “the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration” after they participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

On the first day of his second term, Trump commuted the prison sentences of 14 of the attack’s ringleaders and members of the paramilitary groups the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. The president granted a “full, complete and unconditional pardon” to all others charged with crimes after the attack.

“Perhaps there has never been a group of people treated so badly in our Nation’s history. They are suffering still, many ruined, and I felt that they should be given compensation for what has been done to them,” Trump continued in a 254-word post.

He also attacked Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn and said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche should be “immediately approved” as attorney general.

Cornyn and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, both members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, have refused to advance Blanche’s nomination from committee to the full Senate until Blanche, also Trump’s former personal defense lawyer, formally ends the “anti-weaponization” fund in writing. 

Blanche, of Florida, maintains his comments before a House Appropriations subcommittee in June prove the administration ended the fund.

‘Legal and political albatross’

In a late morning statement on X, Tillis said Trump “made it clear today that the so-called Anti Weaponization Fund is still alive, which is exactly why we are attempting to formally end it.”

“While I never disagreed that the Biden Administration pursued a number of vindictive prosecutions related to January 6, the criminals who assaulted police officers and defiled our nation’s Capitol are not ‘great American patriots’ who are ‘victims of government abuse.’ Anyone who attacked law enforcement should still be in prison, not getting a check from the federal government,” Tillis wrote.

He added he and Cornyn are working with Blanche, whom he described as “forthright, thoughtful and patient,” on ending the fund. 

“It’s a shame his confirmation has hit a snag only because an incompetent personal advisor to the President refuses to amend the bogus settlement. I will continue working in good faith to put an end this legal and political albatross and prevent any potential misallocation of taxpayer dollars,” Tillis wrote.

Tillis’ office did not respond to a question about the identity of the adviser the senator mentioned in the statement.

When being questioned by reporters at the Cabinet meeting at Camp David just over an hour later, Trump said Blanche should be confirmed as attorney general “forthwith” and that the fund is “dead.”

“But you know, I wish it weren’t. To be honest with you, I think people were horribly treated, horribly abused. … and I’d like to see them compensated for the pain.”

The White House press office on Friday issued a press release linking to statements and quotes in support of Blanche from dozens of law enforcement associations, former Justice Department officials and Republican lawmakers.

Trump, Cornyn and Tillis

On Thursday, Trump threatened to pull Blanche’s nomination and leave him in an acting capacity until both Cornyn and Tillis leave office at year’s end.

Cornyn’s career in the Senate is ending after he lost in a runoff election in May to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whom Trump endorsed.

Tillis announced last year he would not seek reelection after Trump threatened to find primary opponents to challenge the North Carolina Republican after he refused to support Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, had scheduled a committee vote on Blanche’s nomination for Thursday morning, but postponed the vote late Wednesday when it was clear Cornyn and Tillis were not yet satisfied.

The Judiciary Committee is split between 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats. All Democrats are expected to oppose Blanche, and a majority vote is required to advance Blanche’s nomination to the full Senate for confirmation.

Judge slammed Trump settlement

Trump’s settlement with the IRS faced opposition on multiple fronts, including in court.

In a July 13 order, the Florida federal judge in Trump’s IRS case slammed the president’s settlement with his own administration as using the presidency to “manipulate” the courts.

Lawyers for Trump, his two sons and the Trump Organization made public in a federal court filing Friday their plans to appeal a lower court order that bars them “from referring to the purported ‘settlement agreement’ … as evidence of a ‘settlement’ reached in this matter.”

The Justice Department’s announcement of the “anti-weaponization” fund in May immediately drew scrutiny from both sides of the aisle for the possibility that Jan. 6 defendants who assaulted police officers could reap a reward.

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. and Frank Bisignano, the Internal Revenue Service’s chief executive officer, a position created by Trump, signed the settlement that Trump negotiated with his own administration officials for himself, his sons and the private Trump Organization.

Like Blanche, Woodward also had ties to Trump’s criminal cases prior to the president’s second term. Woodward represented Trump’s co-defendant Walt Nauta in the government’s 2023 case regarding classified material found at Mar-a-Lago.

Opposition to the “anti-weaponization” fund among Republicans snarled quick passage of an immigration enforcement package to fund Trump’s mass deportation agenda for the remainder of his term.

The settlement deal also includes immunity for Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric, and the Trump Organization from tax audits and enforcement connected to any tax information leaked by a government contractor in 2019. The contractor was prosecuted and sentenced to jail time in 2024.

Cornyn pressed Blanche on the tax immunity portion of the deal during a July 15 confirmation hearing. Blanche defended the terms as “typical” of settlements with the IRS.

Cornyn wrote on social media Thursday the president is “mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis.”

Former Department of Justice officials told committee Democrats the IRS settlement language was “mind-boggling,” during a July 22 forum hosted by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. 

Amelia Twyman contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — A vote on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to permanently fill the nation’s top law enforcement role was postponed Wednesday after two Republican senators — John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — remained dissatisfied with Blanche’s handling of the administration’s “anti-weaponization” fund and a tax immunity deal.

A spokesperson for Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement the vote had been postponed.

“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure,” said the spokesperson, who was not identified. “Senators Cornyn and Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement. Tomorrow’s markup is postponed as work continues to secure sufficient support in committee to favorably report Attorney General-nominee Todd Blanche, who is highly qualified for the job.”

A scheduled meeting between Blanche and Cornyn, a member of Judiciary, fell through Wednesday morning. Cornyn said he did not receive requested documentation that President Donald Trump’s tax settlement deal with the IRS was fundamentally changed.

In exchange for Trump voluntarily dropping in May his $10 billion suit against the IRS over leaked tax documents, Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service officials signed a settlement absolving the president, his sons Eric and Don Jr., and the Trump Organization from future tax enforcement in the matter.

Blanche, during his confirmation hearing before the committee, defended the tax deal for Trump, his sons and their private organization, as “typical” of IRS settlements. He also maintained the “anti-weaponization” fund portion of the deal had been completely scrapped. 

Before being appointed as the deputy attorney general, and then acting AG, Blanche worked as Trump’s personal defense lawyer on multiple criminal cases.

“The meeting with Todd Blanche is off,” Cornyn told reporters Wednesday morning, according to comments shared by his office. 

“We made clear from the outset that we expected some written proposals to modify the release that was signed in the tax dispute with President Trump and his organization,” he said, adding this is the second scheduled meeting with DOJ officials that had fallen through.

The Judiciary Committee had held over Blanche’s nomination vote on July 23 until July 30, “per standard committee practice,” according to a spokesperson for Grassley.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters he “would encourage them to sit down, which I think they are, and try to come to a resolution there.”

A Department of Justice official said Wednesday in a statement, “The DOJ provided a written proposal to Senator Cornyn’s staff yesterday following ongoing discussion with both the Committee and the Senator’s office. We look forward to further discussion around any outstanding concerns.”  

‘Maybe John Cornyn is upset with me’

When asked about opposition to Blanche’s nomination, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday that Blanche is “outstanding.”

“Maybe John Cornyn is upset with me because I didn’t endorse him, I don’t know what it is. But I haven’t heard that there’s a problem. I heard he’s going through quite nicely,” Trump said.

Cornyn, who criticized the Trump settlement Wednesday, faces little consequence to his Republican Senate career. Cornyn was knocked out of the Republican primary in a runoff election in May after Trump endorsed his opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The Judiciary Committee is split between 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats. All Democrats are expected to oppose Blanche, and a majority vote is required to advance Blanche’s nomination to the full Senate for final approval.

Tillis also grilled Blanche during his July 15 confirmation hearing about the administration’s establishment of a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund. Upon announcing the fund, Blanche described the pot of money as financial relief for “victims of lawfare” of any political ideology.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle quickly criticized the fund and its potential to reward pardoned Jan. 6, 2021, rioters who assaulted police officers during the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Tillis said during the hearing he wanted to see the Justice Department “stick a fork” in the fund once and for all.

Blanche maintained he had already clarified the fund would not move forward when he said as much during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing in June. 

Tillis’ office did not respond to a request for comment about whether he would support Blanche’s nomination.

Tillis, who is retiring, also faces little risk of losing favor with Trump if he opposes Blanche. Trump subjected Tillis to intense criticism for opposing the Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025 and said he would find candidates to oppose Tillis in his primary.

Former Department of Justice officials told committee Democrats the IRS settlement language was “mind-boggling,” during a July 22 forum hosted by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. 

In a July 13 order, the Florida federal judge in the IRS case slammed Trump’s settlement with his own administration as using the presidency to “manipulate” the courts.

WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. Senate tasked with advancing acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to be the nation’s top law enforcer on Thursday pushed the vote one week.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s delayed vote to send the controversial nominee to the full Senate is “per standard committee practice,” according to a spokesperson for Chairman Chuck Grassley.

The Iowa Republican and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., used the time that had been allocated for the vote to comment at length on Blanche’s nomination. Grassley then recessed the session because too many Republicans were absent, which he described as “kind of rude.”

Grassley praised the selection of Blanche and said the Justice Department under his leadership as deputy and acting attorney general “has protected Americans at every turn,” but that committee Democrats “like clockwork, sought to defame him.”

Democratic committee member Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey led a forum Wednesday featuring former Department of Justice officials and a survivor of abuse by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. 

The witnesses questioned Blanche’s fitness to lead the Justice Department following his handling of the Epstein files release, during which several victims’ identities were unmasked, and his role is establishing a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund as part of President Donald Trump’s settlement with his own administration’s IRS.

Durbin said Thursday he and fellow Democrats oppose Blanche, who worked as Trump’s personal defense lawyer prior to his appointment to the DOJ, because he “will continue to serve the interests of Donald Trump, not the American people.”

Sen. Darline Graham joins

Committee members were scheduled to address other business, including voting on federal judicial nominees in Ohio and Oklahoma, and approving subcommittee roles for Republican Sen. Darline Graham, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. She was sworn in as a senator July 14 following the sudden death of her brother.

The committee meeting marked the first for Graham, who was not yet part of the panel when members questioned Blanche for nearly five hours during a confirmation hearing July 15. Her arrival on the GOP-led committee brings the split among members back to 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats and is likely a positive development for Blanche.

Nominations require a majority vote to advance to the Senate floor. All eyes are on whether committee Republicans Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who announced his retirement last year, and John Cornyn of Texas will support Blanche after Trump effectively ended both of their Senate careers.

Trump subjected Tillis to intense criticism for opposing the Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025 and said he would find candidates to oppose Tillis in his primary. Trump endorsed Cornyn’s primary opponent earlier this year.

Both Tillis and Cornyn pressed Blanche during his confirmation hearing about formally ending the “anti-weaponization” fund. 

While Cornyn was present at Thursday morning’s Judiciary Committee meeting, Tillis was one of several members missing. Grassley’s spokesperson attributed Tillis’ absence to a Senate Banking Committee meeting that convened just a half hour before the scheduled Judiciary Committee meeting. Tillis’ office did not immediately respond to a question about his absence.

Blanche was a prosecutor in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from 2006 to 2014. 

He eventually left the Justice Department to work in private law and represented Trump as his personal defense attorney in three criminal cases in 2023 and 2024. 

Trump, with the approval of Senate Republicans, installed Blanche as deputy attorney general in March 2025. 

Trump announced Blanche as his pick for attorney general in early June, just over two months after former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s departure. 

WASHINGTON — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche vowed Wednesday to lawmakers on Capitol Hill that if he is confirmed for the top post, the Justice Department would not oppose an effort in Congress to permanently ban a controversial “anti-weaponization” fund.

Blanche also said he would consider any new information brought forward to the government about deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his ring of powerful associates. Multiple Epstein abuse survivors attended the Blanche confirmation hearing, some wearing t-shirts depicting the black bar redactions contained within the released files.

Blanche, who previously worked as President Donald Trump’s defense attorney, appeared before a tightly divided Senate Committee on the Judiciary. 

The Republican-led panel is now split 11-10 after the sudden death Saturday of South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham. A large bouquet of white roses was placed before his empty seat Wednesday.

Lawmakers volleyed partisan accusations about the weaponization of the Department of Justice under presidents from both parties. Missouri’s GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt called former Biden administration special counsel Jack Smith a “dirt bag” for his involvement in prosecuting Trump over allegations of colluding to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

But it was the plan for a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that brought tough questions for Blanche from two committee Republicans whose votes he needs to advance, Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. The fund was established in exchange for Trump dropping his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS for the 2019 leak of his tax returns.

With a raised voice, Tillis said he wants “to stick a fork in this turkey of a 1776 fund,” referring to the administration’s choice of making the fund exactly $1.776 billion, adding the fund “should never be paid out.”

Confirmation fight

The acting attorney general faces a possible rocky road to confirmation in the narrowly divided full Senate, assuming he is advanced by Judiciary, depending on when Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell is released from hospitalization. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine have previously opposed some items on Trump’s agenda.

Blanche’s confirmation will also be up to a handful of lame duck or retiring Republican senators whose future Senate careers were thwarted by Trump. They include Cornyn, a Texas Republican, and Bill Cassidy, R-La. Both recently lost primaries when Trump endorsed their opponents.

Blanche is a former federal prosecutor who switched to private law, eventually starting his own firm and representing Trump. 

Blanche defended Trump during a New York state jury trial on charges that the then-former president falsified business records when he paid adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump was found guilty on 34 felony charges in May 2024. 

Blanche then served as the deputy at DOJ in the second Trump administration, confirmed on a party-line vote, before being named acting AG after the departure in early June of Pam Bondi.

Trump and the Republican-led Senate have elevated the president’s former personal lawyers to high-level positions in the U.S. judicial system during his second term in office. 

In addition to appointing Blanche, the president nominated former defense attorney Emil Bove to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. 

The Senate, in a narrow 50-49 vote, confirmed Bove for the lifetime position in June 2025. Collins and Murkowski broke with Republicans to oppose Bove’s confirmation.

‘Anti-weaponization’ fund

Blanche caught heat from both sides of the aisle during the hourslong hearing for signing off on the “anti-weaponization” fund for claimants he previously described as “victims of lawfare.” 

Critics quickly pounced on what they called a “slush fund” for its likely future payouts to pardoned Jan. 6, 2021 defendants, including those who assaulted police officers during the attack aimed at halting Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

Blanche maintains the administration scrapped the fund.

The acting attorney general sidestepped questions on whether he approved of Trump’s blanket pardon of roughly 1,600 defendants implicated in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“The Constitution gives the president the full power to pardon anybody for any reason,” Blanche said.

“You don’t question his decision?” ranking member Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked.

Blanche repeated his answer.

Cornyn, displaying a blown-up copy of the IRS settlement deal, questioned Blanche on why the Department of Justice has not formally ended the fund.

“Has there been a written agreement of the parties to modify the settlement fund?” asked Cornyn.

“No, the settlement fund is just not moving forward. There’s no modification. It’s just, it never started. No money went from the Treasury to any other account,” Blanche replied.

“I’m under oath today, and I’ve said it’s dead repeatedly,” Blanche later said to Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat.

Tillis said, “I think that the courts are probably going to deal with it. But why should we waste the court capacity on this issue? If I could walk to the Senate floor with an agreed-to piece of text coming from the administration that just renders this whole thing dead?”

Blanche said the administration does “not object (to) that path.”

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, defended the arrangement to drop Trump’s IRS lawsuit as a “pretty darn good deal” that was settled “without the president receiving a single penny.”

Blanche met with angry Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill May 21 to sell the settlement fund as several protested it by holding out on the passage of a massive immigration funding bill to support Trump’s mass deportation agenda for the remainder of his term.

Blanche told House appropriators during a June 2 hearing that the administration would not move forward with the fund, but said he didn’t know “what that means to sign documents reversing” the fund.

Trump tax immunity

Trump’s settlement to drop his IRS lawsuit also indefinitely absolves him and his two plaintiff sons, Don Jr. and Eric, as well as the private Trump Organization, from government prosecutions and tax enforcement.

Democrats seized on the disparity. “Everyone in this room, all of us on this side, we have to follow the tax laws of the United States, and if we don’t, we can be held responsible for it to the point of even criminal prosecution,” Durbin said. 

“Why did you decide that President Trump and his family and their businesses should be exempt from that same responsibility?” the Illinois Democrat asked.

Blanche said the agreement was “typical” of settlements with the IRS, and that the agreement “included release of any past audits. It does not give any protection to the president, his family, or his organizations for any taxes they file.”

“It’s hard to explain to the American people that no one is above the law when that type of document was signed by you,” Durbin replied.

The Florida federal judge in the IRS case on Monday slammed Trump’s settlement with his own administration as using the presidency to “manipulate” the courts.

Epstein files

As expected, senators questioned the Justice Department’s handling of the legally mandated release of government files on Epstein, a process that critics and victims say fell short of full transparency and protection of victims’ identities.

Blanche defended the department’s “Herculean” effort in reviewing millions of documents related to the government’s federal investigation of Epstein 

“There were mistakes that were made, and so approximately 1% of the redactions had to be fixed after we released the Epstein files,” Blanche said. 

“Whenever we learned that any victim’s name had been improperly not redacted, we immediately took the document down and fixed it as soon as we could. That doesn’t excuse the mistakes of which I take responsibility, but it does mean that we tried to fix them,” Blanche said.

Durbin asked for a commitment that Blanche personally meet in the next month with 10 Epstein victims present at the hearing. Blanche said a sex trafficking prosecutor in his office is willing to meet any time, and that he is precluded from doing so because of ongoing litigation.

“We will never not talk to victims. We will never not do everything we can to prosecute anybody that committed any crimes against any of these women. … Any victim, if they’re here today, I would encourage them or their lawyers to meet with the FBI,” Blanche said.

“I think you ought to be in the room,” Durbin said.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said he was “stunned” at Blanche’s refusal to meet personally with victims.

“But you did meet with Ghislaine Maxwell,” Booker said, referring to Blanche’s July 2025 meeting with the convicted sex trafficker and Epstein co-conspirator shortly before she was moved to a prison with less security.

Epstein survivors submitted six letters to the committee opposing Blanche’s nomination, and Durbin also submitted for the record a letter from 1,200 former career DOJ employees who served for both parties warning against confirming Blanche.

When prompted by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., to apologize to victims in the room, Blanche said his “heart breaks for every victim of any sexual crime, whether involving Mr. Epstein or somebody else.”

Pivoting the subject to a campaign refrain of Republicans, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., said she appreciated Blanche’s “commitment” to the Epstein victims and that she wished Democrats “had that same level of conviction” for “families of those who have lost loved ones at the hands of illegal aliens.”

Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, entered a handful of letters in support of Blanche’s confirmation, including from law enforcement associations.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump “acted in bad faith” when he swiftly dropped his tax return lawsuit and directed his Cabinet members to establish a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, a federal judge in Florida ruled Monday.

Federal Judge Kathleen Williams of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida excoriated Trump, his sons Eric and Don Trump Jr., and their private Trump Organization for using the presidency to “manipulate the judicial process to pursue benefits unavailable 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 Treasury creating a $1.776 billion fund for alleged “victims of lawfare.”

Critics pounced on the settlement as a “slush fund” for “cop beaters,” referring to Jan. 6 defendants who assaulted police officers. Trump pardoned all Jan. 6 rioters on the first day of his second term. 

The Department of Justice maintained the fund was open to victims of any political leanings.

Williams, appointed during President Barack Obama’s first term, noted in her order the pot of settlement money was created to “fund claims premised on events including those arising from, inter alia, the Mar-a-Lago Documents Case and the events of January 6, 2021.”

The settlement agreement, signed May 18 by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank Bisignano, also forever absolved Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization from government prosecution and tax enforcement.

“No sitting President has ever sued federal agencies completely subject to his control for monetary benefits, or any benefits that inure to him, his family, and associates. The failure of any attorney in this case to address, on this docket, the relationship of this Article II proscription with the benefits conferred by the ‘settlement’ is a glaring omission that speaks to the control of the Lead Plaintiff,” Williams wrote in the 56-page order.

Lawyers, Trump and family cited

Williams referred Trump’s attorney Alejandro Brito to the Florida Bar for review of possible disciplinary action, and will prohibit for at least one year applications to the Southern District of Florida by Trump’s other attorney, Daniel Z. Epstein.

Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization are “prohibited from referring to the purported ‘settlement agreement,’ or using, offering, admitting, or citing any of its provisions in any judicial, administrative, regulatory, arbitration, or any other official proceeding as evidence of a ‘settlement’ reached in this matter,” Williams wrote. 

Further, she ordered the Trumps and their company to reimburse fees for attorneys appointed by the court to examine 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 the late 2019 leak of their tax information to news media by a government contractor. The contractor had already been sentenced for the leak in early 2024.

The creation of the “anti-weaponization” fund sparked lawsuits, including from two former police officers who deployed to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump’s IRS case was revived in late May when 35 former federal judges intervened, arguing the settlement fund was “a product of collusion and is itself a fraud on the Court.”

Lawyers representing the former federal judges hailed Williams’ ruling.

“The court’s opinion is a resounding victory for the rule of law. We are proud to represent these former judges in presenting the arguments that the court adopted,” according to 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 and that the court lacked authority to review the settlement.

In her order Monday, Williams said the court declined to “accept the credulous exercise of divorcing President Trump’s current job title from an understanding of what happened here.”

Promise to scrap fund

Outrage over the fund, including from members of Trump’s own party, delayed the Senate’s eventual passage of a bill to fund Trump’s mass deportation agenda for the rest of his term.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified to Congress on June 2 that the administration would scrap the fund.

The White House referred States Newsroom to the president’s personal attorneys for comment. 

A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said in a statement, “The IRS wrongly allowed a rogue, 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 released to millions of people. President Trump continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice provided States Newsroom with a written statement. 

“There was no collusion in this case, and the partisan judge who speculated otherwise has disregarded decades of precedent. This case was brought by President Trump in his personal capacity, as well as by several members of his family, who were all victims of admitted violations of law. There was a live dispute because the plaintiffs sought relief that the government had not provided. The plaintiffs did not receive any money and were barred from receiving any from the now-defunct Anti-Weaponization Fund,” according to the spokesperson.

The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment.