U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams was skeptical. The case before her purported to be between the Internal Revenue Service and a group of private citizens harmed by a leak of their tax returns. The eye-popping $10 billion in relief they were seeking was wild on its own. But among the plaintiffs was President Donald Trump, who oversees both the IRS and the Justice Department lawyers who would be defending the government’s interests.
Or rather they should be defending the government’s interests. Instead, as Williams noted in her scathing 56-page order, Trump effectively controlled both sides of the lawsuit at all points, rendering it ineligible for relief from the court system.
The “settlement" was already the most likely outcome before a single brief had been filed from the defendants. In her total rejection of the case, Williams has rightly refused to allow America’s courts to be a fig leaf for Trump to enrich himself and his allies.
For starters, the timing was all wrong.
This is a preview of a column by Hayes Brown. Read the full column here. |
