Democrats blast Trump over ‘slush fund’ in possible IRS lawsuit settlement
... “This administration is dripping with corruption from top to bottom, but rushing a settlement to steal $1.7 billion taxpayer dollars for a slush fund before a judge can toss your junk lawsuit would be among the most corrupt acts in American political history,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.
“This lawsuit has never been anything more than a shakedown of the American people by a crook president and his crook lawyers,” Wyden said.
Trump, his two eldest sons, and his family business sued the IRS and the Treasury Department in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida over the 2019 leak of the president’s tax returns. It was an unprecedented move that raised concerns about conflicts of interest at the time. ...
News of the potential settlement comes ahead of a May 20 deadline set by U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams, who asked the Justice Department and Trump’s legal team to explain whether the case with the president on both sides can even be heard by a federal court.
″(A)lthough President Trump avers that he is bringing this lawsuit in his personal capacity, he is the sitting president and his named adversaries are entities whose decisions are subject to his direction,” Williams wrote in a court filing in April.
“It is unclear to this Court whether the Parties are sufficiently adverse to each other so as to satisfy” the constitutional requirement that federal cases only adjudicate cases or controversies. ...
