Lawrence: Trump sued himself — and lost
www.ms.now
MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell details how a federal judge said no to Donald Trump, finding that his lawsuit against the IRS “did not actually involve two sides, but was really Donald Trump suing himself,” meaning that Donald Trump “and his cowardly Treasury Secretary and his now-sanctioned lawyers, will not be allowed to defile the very temple of justice.”
  • Monument@piefed.worldEnglish
    9·
    2 days ago

    For folks who are out of the loop:

    An IRS contractor leaked parts of Trump’s tax returns (the same tax returns he promised to release himself), and it was discovered that Trump and the Trump Org had defrauded the government and investors for decades. Criminal investigations were launched and the Trump org was found guilty on 17 counts. Trump himself was found guilty on 34 counts.

    For their crimes, the Trump org was made to pay the maximum allowable fine of 1.6 million dollars, even though the crimes committed were in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars.
    Trump’s sentencing was delayed until after the election. He faced up to 136 years in prison. A judge discharged the sentence.

    The leaker was sentenced and convicted by the Biden administration to 5 years in prison.

    Trump, now in control of the IRS and the DOJ, then sued the IRS (represented by the DOJ) for ‘allowing’ someone with the correct access and credentials to access Trump’s tax information. (Which he leaked to the press.)

    The IRS settled with Trump for 10 billion dollars, the creation of a 1.7 billion dollar fund to give money to people who had been “victimized” by the DOJ that was more or less under Trump’s control, an agreement to never audit Trump, his family, or his businesses.

    Since then, the anti-weaponization fund has been more or less killed.

    This latest turn is that a judge has called the lawsuit an exercise in self dealing, and has referred the lawyers for discipline. She said she believes the deal is corrupt and unlawful, and has formally killed the anti-weaponization fund.
    While she has questioned whether the immunity part of the deal will hold up, she has not gone farther than that. As far as I know, the 10 billion dollars to Trump and the immunity are still in place.

    The only losers here so far are Trump’s lawyers, and the J6ers who think Trump is going to pay them.

    • AiderVaderOPEnglish
      33·
      2 days ago

      …his lawsuit against the IRS “did not actually involve two sides, but was really Donald Trump suing himself,” meaning that Donald Trump “and his cowardly Treasury Secretary and his now-sanctioned lawyers, will not be allowed to defile the very temple of justice.”

  • Jimbabwe
    2·
    2 days ago

    It’s actually America that lost. But yeah, T can’t stop pulling L’s as well…