President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin).
Nearly three dozen former federal judges filed court documents to "reopen" Donald Trump's civil lawsuit against the IRS, arguing that the president's $1.776 billion "settlement" with himself to fund his followers and immunize his family from tax probes is a "fraud on the court" that warrants judicial review.
The motion, brought Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, tells U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams that she has the power to disregard the allegedly fraudulent basis of Trump's voluntary dismissal of his lawsuit, reopen the case on her own, and probe what really happened here.
Mentioning retired judge Michael Luttig at the top of a list with 34 other names, the filing said there are "profound questions" about the "candor" — or truthfulness — of Trump, the DOJ, and the IRS in court.
"Movants ask the Court to exercise its authority under Rule 60 to set aside the judgment in this lawsuit, allowing the Court to resume its inquiry into whether there is an actual underlying case or controversy, or whether, to the contrary, this 'case' that the parties purport to have 'settled' is itself a fraud on the Court," court documents said.
As Law&Crime has reported, Trump moved to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit just when it seemed Williams — a Barack Obama appointee who has also overseen cases involving the "Alligator Alcatraz" detention facility — might rule that there was no case or controversy before her because the two parties were on the same side. Meanwhile, internal government memoranda reportedly showed that the Trump administration refused to make arguments that could defeat the lawsuit.
According to the collection of retired judges, what occurred was a sleight of hand: Trump and the DOJ sidestepped judicial oversight to reach a "settlement" and then cited that "collusive" action as a "legal justification for looting" the U.S. Treasury.
"The Court expressly noted in its Order dismissing the case that 'the Notice does not reference any settlement or include a stipulation of settlement,' and thus 'there is no settlement of record.' The Court further noted that Defendants 'neither submitted any settlement documents nor filed any documents ensuring that settlement was appropriate where there was an outstanding question as to whether an actual case or controversy existed," the filing said. "The Court was deceived. Despite Plaintiffs not having mentioned any settlement in their Notice, the Department of Justice publicly announced a 'settlement' of this action shortly after Plaintiffs filed their dismissal. That 'settlement' commandeers the contrived sum of $1.776 billion from the United States Treasury, to be handed out to recipients chosen by a commission effectively controlled by the President."
Then, the very next day, the Trump administration showed just how deep a "product of collusion" this "settlement" is by providing "extraordinary benefits" of tax audit relief for himself and his family, the motion alleged.
"The parties to this case are using this lawsuit as the legal justification for these actions. This is not speculation; the parties themselves have proclaimed it, repeatedly," the filing ended, urging Williams to probe the "historically unprecedented" events.
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