In what could be Trump's biggest money-grabbing, thieving, traitorous act ever. (The reason I say 'could be his biggest" is we don’t know all of the BS he has already done, and the extent of the sharing and selling of the documents he took, and how traitorous he has been.)
He is trying to let the IRS settle his lawsuit out of court. The complaint alleged “reputational and financial harm” as well as “public embarrassment” from the leak of some of his tax records. I can understand being embarrassed when you are a billionaire and don’t pay taxes, or as little as 750 dollars. But it should be shared with the public when you are doing something like that. But how could you ask for 10 billion and not be embarrassed about that? A 10-billion-dollar lawsuit for a mistake the IRS made while Trump was in charge, and Trump was notified of the issue that led the leak to happen. Shouldn’t he be more embarrassed that he did a bad job while he was in charge?
The Judge who is hearing the case is asking whether there are two independent parties here, given that Trump — as president — oversees the IRS and the Treasury Department that his private lawyers are suing. The arguments showing that this is not true need to be presented by the 20th of May, with a decision from the judge on the 26th of May. So rather than having it thrown out (which is what should happen), he settles now, before justice can be determined. What a scam.
The law he is using to sue under is for financial damages, he claims, which were caused by the disclosure. A disclosure that all the presidents in recent times have made. His net worth has increased since the leaks, making it particularly difficult to substantiate a claim of financial harm. It is also probably past the statute of limitations. The suit even alleges “Every year from 2010 through 2020, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (“TIGTA”) has warned the IRS about security deficiencies related to the protection of taxpayers’ confidential tax return information.” “Many of these deficiencies went uncorrected and … allowed Littlejohn to misappropriate the information, upload it to a private website, and then disclose it. Littlejohn is the guy who sent his returns to The New York Times. So, he was president for 4 years during which the deficiencies occurred, and he was advised of them. So maybe that’s why they are in such a hurry to settle out of court, because he let the issue go uncorrected.
He is being nice enough to throw in two other frivolous cases he has against the government. Trump’s first administrative claim, filed in 2023, concerned the FBI’s alleged conduct in its Russia-gate probe. Trump’s second claim, filed in 2024, concerned the FBI’s alleged tortious conduct in its Mar-a-Lago document search. Trump sought $115 million for each of these claims—$230 million total—to cover compensatory and punitive damages. He continues to pursue these cases for money even though he is now negotiating with his own Justice Department.
To make you feel a little better, the 1.7 billion he is extorting is equivalent to the average of 121 thousand hardworking, decent taxpayers following the law and paying their fair share of taxes. He says he will give some of it to the people who attacked Congress on January 6th. But if we look at the money he got for his stop the steal campaign (around 280 million), he spent around 15 million, leaving 255 million that is slowly being siphoned off. A note on the 15 million he spent on lawsuits: he lost 61 out of 62 cases, and the one he won required people to show ID to back up their mail-in ballots. It cost the cities and states over 500 million to try the cases.
So let's make sure it goes to court and is heard after he leaves office. And remember, it's not good to do a terrible job at work, but it is way worse to ask for a raise while doing a terrible job.
Please send a copy to your representative and senators.