townhall.com86%
This Federal Judge Just Destroyed Trump's Settlement With the IRS 24%
By Jeff Charles36%
7/14/2026, 11:45:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 15 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, and Appeal to Emotion, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 25.8% saturation with 109 hits. Analysis detected 557 faulty-reasoning hits from 423 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 36.7% and a BS Rank of 24% (16,199 of 21,176 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 76.50% of the article peer group.
A federal court on Monday voided President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS and referred one of his lawyers for possible disciplinary action.
U.S.
District Judge for the Southern District of Florida Kathleen M.
Williams, who was appointed by then-President Barack Obama, found that the lawsuit never presented a real “case or controversy” because, as the president, Trump essentially controlled the defendant agencies and their lawyers.
This means there was no true contention in his case.
She further argued that the lawsuit was filed for the wrong purpose: “to gain the imprimatur of judicial legitimacy for a ‘settlement’ that had no viable basis in law or fact.”
In his complaint, Trump and others alleged that the IRS and Treasury Department caused them “reputational and financial harm” by failing to stop contractor Charles Littlejohn from unlawfully leaking his tax return documentation to news outlets like the New York Times and ProPublica.
Trump and his team demanded at least $10 billion in damages.
His lawyers tried to frame the lawsuit as a normal one, noting that while he is a sitting president, he “brings this suit in his personal capacity” and insisted there was nothing unusual about the case or the settlement.
The Justice Department never filed an appearance or substantive response to Trump’s allegations in court.
Instead, it joined in negotiating and announcing a settlement that involved a formal apology and the creation of the $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” aimed at compensating those who were targets of government lawfare.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress there was “no judge” and “no mechanism” for reviewing the settlement because Trump had already voluntarily dismissed his case against the IRS and Treasury Department.
He also pointed out that the White House already scrapped the Anti-Weaponization Fund.
Judge Williams rejected Trump’s argument that he was filing the lawsuit in his personal capacity.
She referred to the argument as “the credulous exercise of divorcing President Trump’s current job title from an understanding of what happened here.”
She further argued that “it is risible to suggest that there was ever adverseness between the Parties” and referred one of Trump’s attorneys to the bar association for possible disciplinary action for bringing the lawsuit in bad faith.
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Speakers
3speakers47%attributed speech225writer words
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100%flagged-word coverageTodd Blanche
45 attributed words23% of attributed speech54% writer coverage
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Analysis
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