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To the Journal editor:
Never in U.S. history, has a sitting president ever sued the executive branch that he controls to obtain a personal financial recovery from the federal government. Yet, that is exactly what President Trump did by suing the IRS, one branch of the federal bureaucracy he controls, for $10 billion dollars.
Trump claims that his reputation and businesses were damaged by billions of dollars from the unauthorized disclosure of his personal tax return, not even by the IRS, but by a third-party contractor. Actually, the unauthorized release of Trump’s person tax records happened during his first term as president in 2019, at a time that he controlled the IRS.
Predictably, the federal Judge in charge of the case, on July 13, issued a 56-page opinion against President Trump, finding that his lawsuit had “the improper purpose” of manipulating the court process. Earlier this year, the IRS commissioner who was appointed by Trump agreed to settle the case in the president’s favor for a $1.77 billion sweetheart deal, but the federal judge rejected the settlement as improper self-dealing and constitutionally defective.
The federal judge also had scathing remarks for Mr. Trump’s attorneys who brought the case and set up the sweetheart settlement, sending the judge’s opinion to the state bars of Florida and New York for disciplinary action against the attorneys.
Mr. Trump’s double-dealing should shock even his most ardent supporters. As an attorney, I find his abuse of the court system to be offensive and unconscionable. In another sweetheart deal for Mr. Trump, his acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, issued a directive preventing the IRS from auditing any of Mr. Trump’s previously filed tax returns.
Again, as I started this letter, never in U.S. history has a sitting president ever … used the federal government to personally benefit himself and his family.