美国司法部周一宣布，作为和解协议的一部分唐纳德·特朗普总统的100亿美元的诉讼针对国内税收署，司法部长正在建立一个17.76亿美元的“反武器化基金”，以补偿那些声称自己在拜登政府下被错误地锁定为目标的人。
此前，代表特朗普的律师在周一早些时候的一份法庭文件中通知一名联邦法官，总统正在撤销对国税局的诉讼。
负责此案的法官，美国地区法官凯瑟琳·威廉姆斯(Kathleen Williams)随后下令结案，这表明她不打算挑战这项有争议的和解协议。
在周一发布的一份简短命令中，威廉姆斯法官表示，她“被剥夺了继续监督此案的管辖权”。她指出，和解协议从未在本案中备案，因此没有“和解记录”，这使她无权裁定私下和解。
根据和解条款，特朗普总统没有资格从赔偿基金中获得资金，他同意放弃对美国国税局的100亿美元诉讼两起索赔2 . 3亿美元的民事诉讼与他在第一个任期内面临的俄罗斯共谋调查和2022年对他的Mar-a-Lago房地产的搜查有关。
特朗普在一名政府承包商之后起诉了国税局认罪2023年窃取特朗普和其他美国富人的税务信息，并在2019年和2020年泄露给媒体。
作为美国广播公司新闻以前报告过该基金将由司法部长任命的五人委员会领导，尽管特朗普有权罢免任何成员。DOJ计划从联邦赔偿基金中为该基金拨款，该基金是一项永久拨款，通常用于支付法院判决和和解费用。
根据DOJ的消息，司法部长将会收到每季度更新的关于已经赔偿了多少钱的信息，而且基金本身也可以被审计。
根据DOJ的声明，该基金本身是模仿奥巴马政府达成的7.6亿美元的和解协议，以补偿因美国农业部的农业贷款计划而受到歧视的美国土著农民。
根据DOJ的说法，该基金本身将于2028年12月15日停止运作，任何剩余的资金都将移交给联邦政府。
周一，一个由93名众议院民主党人组成的小组在特朗普的诉讼案件中提交了一份法庭之友简报，批评这项和解协议，称其为“合谋诉讼，迫使美国人民将...钱进了他的口袋，还有他的家人和朋友的口袋。”
在简报中，众议院民主党人认为诉讼和和解是公然非法的，“引发了美国历史上前所未有的腐败幽灵。”
“提起串通诉讼，但立即驳回诉讼，以达成多次非法的串通和解，这不仅在法律上被禁止;这也将引发严重的问题，即当事人是否操纵了法院系统以达到非法目的，”立法者在他们的文件中写道。
立法者认为，诉讼和和解不是合法的诉讼，而是一个“将数十亿纳税人的钱吸进总统、他的家人和盟友的口袋”的计划。他们表示，和解将违反分权原则、国内薪酬条款以及民事索赔的两年诉讼时效。
和解基金的消息引发了民主党人和一些共和党人的反弹，他们将其描述为特朗普及其盟友的非法“政治贿赂基金”。
“只有国会有权拨款，国会从未投票决定在司法部设立这笔17亿美元的政治贿赂基金，国会永远不会通过，”众议院司法委员会的资深成员杰米·拉斯金(Jamie Raskin)在周日接受美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)“本周”主播乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯(George Stephanopoulos)的采访时说。
威廉姆斯法官还对诉讼的合法性表示担忧，这实际上是特朗普总统以私人身份与他控制的政府进行对抗。上个月，她命令双方的律师提交证明双方足够敌对的文件，这是诉讼进行的基本法律原则，但在周一驳回案件的命令中，她取消了本周提交这些文件的最后期限。
早些时候，法官任命了一组经验丰富的律师来权衡诉讼的道德和合法性。在上周的一份文件中，这些独立律师对总统在该案中对被告的控制程度表示担忧，并指出“这些情况令人担心被告及其律师可能会在总统的指导下行事。”
“自上任以来，特朗普总统大幅扩大了总统对司法部长和DOJ的监督和控制，包括以模糊忠于总统政策优先事项和忠于总统本人之间界限的方式，”文件称。
DOJ announces $1.7B 'Anti-Weaponization Fund' as part of Trump IRS lawsuit settlement
The Justice Department announced Monday that as part of a settlement agreement inPresident Donald Trump's$10 billion lawsuitagainst the Internal Revenue Service, the attorney general is establishing an $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" to compensate those who allege they were wrongly targeted under the Biden administration.
The announcement came after attorneys representing Trump informed a federal judge in a court filing earlier Monday that the president was dropping his suit against the IRS.
The judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, subsequently ordered the case closed -- signaling that she does not plan to challenge the controversial settlement.
In a brief order issued Monday, Judge Williams said she was "stripped of jurisdiction" to continue overseeing the case.She noted that the settlement agreement was never docketed in the case, so there is no "settlement of record" -- leaving her with no authority to adjudicate the private settlement.
President Trump would not be eligible to receive money from the compensation fund, according to the settlement terms, and he agreed to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS as well astwo civil claims for $230 millionrelated to the Russia collusion investigation he faced during his first term in office and the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump sued the IRS after a government contractorpleaded guiltyin 2023 to stealing the tax information of Trump and other wealthy Americans and leaking it to media outlets in 2019 and 2020.
As ABC Newspreviously reported, the fund will be led by a five-person commission appointed by the attorney general, though Trump would have the right to remove any member. The DOJ plans to pull money for the fund from the federal compensation fund, which is a perpetual appropriation normally used to pay court judgments and settlements.
The attorney general is set to receive quarterly updates about how much money has been awarded, and the fund itself can be audited, according to the DOJ.
According to the DOJ's announcement, the fund itself is modeled after a $760 million settlement reached by the Obama administration to compensate Native American farmers who were discriminated through the USDA's farm loan programs.
The fund itself will cease operations on December 15, 2028, according to the DOJ, and any leftover funds will be turned over to the federal government.
A group of 93 House Democrats filed an amicus brief Monday in Trump's lawsuit case to criticize the settlement, calling it "collusive litigation to force the American people to put ... money into his pockets, and the pockets of his family and friends."
In the brief, House Democrats argued the lawsuit and settlement is blatantly unlawful and "raises the specter of corruption unparalleled in American history."
"Filing a collusive lawsuit only to immediately dismiss it in order to produce a collusive settlement that is illegal multiple times over would not only be legally barred; it would also raise serious questions about whether the parties have manipulated the court system to achieve illicit ends," the lawmakers wrote in their filing.
Rather than a legitimate lawsuit, the lawmakers argued the litigation and settlement are a scheme to "siphon billions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of the President, his family, and his allies." They said the settlement would violate the separation of powers, Domestic Emoluments Clause, and the two-year statute of limitations for the civil claims.
News of the settlement fund prompted backlash from Democrats and some Republicans who described it as an illegal "political slush fund" for Trump and his allies.
"Only Congress has the power to appropriate money, and Congress never voted on creating this $1.7 billion political slush fund at the Department of Justice, and Congress would never pass that," said Rep. Jamie Raskin, the House Judiciary Committee's ranking member, in an interview with ABC News' "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.
Judge Williams had also raised concerns about the legality of the lawsuit, which effectively pitted President Trump in his private capacity against the very government he controls. Last month she ordered the lawyers for both sides to file papers justifying that the parties were adversarial enough -- a basic legal principle for a lawsuit to proceed -- but in her order dismissing the case on Monday she canceled this week’s deadline for those filings.
Earlier, the judge had appointed a group of seasoned attorneys to weigh in on the ethics and legality of the lawsuit. In a filing last week, those independent attorneys raised concerns about the amount of control that the president has over the defendants in the case and noted that the "circumstances raise the specter that Defendants and their attorneys may instead be operating at the President's direction."
"Since taking office, President Trump has significantly expanded the President's oversight and control over the Attorney General and DOJ, including in ways that blur the line between fidelity to the President's policy priorities and fidelity to the President himself," the filing said.
