Judge Demands Answers on Trump’s Collusive IRS Deal
INSIDE: Trent McCotter ... Tina Peters ... Graham Platner
Accountability Blitz
Friday was a blitz of important news on the accountability front — an ICE agent arrested on state charges, a federal judge demanding reasons from the Trump DOJ for dismissing the Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy indictments, another federal judge ordering Trump’s name removed from the Kennedy Center — but the biggest development came in the previously closed case of Trump v. Internal Revenue Service.
In a strikingly worded order, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams of Miami demanded that Trump and the other Trump-related plaintiffs in the case respond to the allegations of collusion raised by 35 former federal judges about the settlement of the case, which purported to create the $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” slush fund and to grant Trump et al. a sweeping release from as much as $100 million in back-tax liabilities.
Judge Williams’ decision to entertain whether she and her court were used to, among other things, launder public funds for use by Trump to award his allies sets up a categorically different kind of clash between the federal judiciary and rogue executive than we’ve seen thus far in Trump II.
This is largely uncharted territory. We have not encountered before a president audacious enough to sue his own government and corrupt enough to have his thumb on every lever of government such that he is essentially settling with himself. It is the lack of an adverse party in the case that caught Judge Williams’ attention in the first place, but the administration raced to settle the case before she could weigh in.
Now she’s taking another stab at it, giving Trump et al. until June 12 to respond to these three allegations:
(1) the charges of collusion and whether the Parties are truly adverse;
(2) the assertion that the dismissal in this case was premised on deception by the Parties; and
(3) the question of whether the case should be reopened because the Court was the “victim of a fraud.”
Williams seemed none too happy when she dismissed the case last month and even less pleased with what she has since learned. In three bristling footnotes to Friday’s order, she called out DOJ for not having ever formally entered an appearance in the case, for the strange settlement “addendum” signed only by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that potentially violates department policy on settlements, and for not defending the IRS against Trump’s claims with the vigor it has in other similar litigation.
But at least for now, it’s not the Justice Department that will get to respond to Williams because it never entered an appearance in the case. It will fall to Trump to respond.
Among the things to watch for: Trump immediately appealing to the 11th Circuit to avoid responding to Williams; the DOJ seeking to intervene so that it may respond (a tricky strategic decision for it to make at this stage); and the political pressure building from Senate Republicans opposed to the slush fund to drop it so that even more immigration enforcement funding can pass.
New Details on the Slush Fund Scheme
Trump personal lawyer Boris Epshteyn has emerged as a key figure in the scheme to settle Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS and establish the “anti-weaponization” slush fund, the NYT reports: “Mr. Epshteyn played a significant role in moving forward the deal to end the suit, coordinating and holding discussions with all of the sides involved: Mr. Trump, the president’s personal lawyers and Justice Department officials, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.”
On the DOJ side, very few lawyers were reportedly involved, but among them was acting Blanche’s top aide, Trent McCotter, and the Office of Legal Counsel led by T. Elliot Gaiser, which blessed the scheme, according to multiple reports.
As many as 12 Senate Republicans have balked at the scheme, and Trump’s top aides have “discussed whether he should kill” the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” in order to get the reconciliation bill on immigration enforcement passed, the WSJ reported.
Quote of the Day
“I mean, it’s deeply offensive to me that you could have a fund that could even possibly compensate people who assaulted police officers or vandalized the Capitol on January 6th.”—former Vice President Mike Pence, who made a harrowing escape from the mob at the Capitol
Jan. 6 Never Ends
U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta of D.C. ordered the Trump DOJ on Friday to provide a fuller justification for seeking to dismiss the indictments of Oath Keepers convicted of seditious conspiracy, including founder Stewart Rhodes. In additions to commutations and pardons of Jan. 6 defendants by the president, the Trump DOJ has moved to wipe the historical record clean of the indictments and convictions arising from the attack on the Capitol.
Tina Peters is scheduled to be released from state custody in Colorado today following the commutation of her sentence by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.
The Retribution: Vindictive Prosecutions
James Comey: Matthew Petracca, the rookie federal prosecutor who brought the “86” case against former FBI Director James Comey, has dropped off the prosecution team and withdrawn from other criminal cases he was handling in the Eastern District of North Carolina. “Petracca had contemplated leaving the Justice Department altogether, according to two people familiar with the matter, but instead remained a Justice Department employee after taking a week off,” NBC News reported.
SPLC: The Trump DOJ’s retributive prosecution of the Southern Poverty Law Center came after an earlier IRS review of the civil rights organization’s paid informant program in 2019-20 concluded that it was legal, CBS News reports: “The tax portion of the investigation, which has not been previously reported, was initiated during President Trump’s first term as an expansion of an FBI probe into whether that same former chief financial officer may have embezzled money from the SPLC, the sources said.”
ICE Agent Arrested on State Charges
Christian Castro, the ICE agent rung up on state charges of shooting an undocumented immigrant through the closed door of their residence during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis and then lying about it, was arrested in South Texas by Texas Rangers on a nationwide warrant. The arrest was made in the presence of Minnesota law enforcement officers and agents from the DHS Inspector General’s Office.
In announcing the arrest, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said her office has more than 30 other open investigations of federal immigration agents who took part in Operation Metro Surge, including the fatal shootings of American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the NYT reported.
Judge Orders ‘Trump’ Off Kennedy Center
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper of D.C. ruled Friday that tacking Donald Trump’s name on to the Kennedy Center, the official memorial for President John F. Kennedy, violated federal law.
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote in giving the administration two weeks to remove Trump’s name.
The adverse ruling sent Trump on long meandering weekend tirades against the judge and the judge’s wife.
2026 Midterms Watch: Maine Senate
The wife of Graham Platner, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R), disclosed to his campaign last August that she had discovered on his phone in the spring of 2025 sexually explicit texts with other women, the WSJ reported.
The campaign confirmed that Platner had engaged in the sexting with other women and posted a video of his wife, Amy Gertner, responding to the news reports.
Genevieve McDonald, the Platner campaign’s political director until she resigned in October, was apparently the staffer in whom Gertner had confided. McDonald shared with the NYT a screenshot of a text message exchange she had with Gertner at the time.
A current Platner campaign official said that Platner had been communicating with up to six women but that the conduct had stopped before his Senate campaign launch, according to the NYT.
Two More Lawless Boat Strikes
A total of four U.S. strikes last week against alleged drug-smuggling boats brought the death toll in the lawless high seas campaign to more than 200:
Friday: Three men were killed in a strike in the eastern Pacific.
Saturday: Three more men were killed in a strike in the eastern Pacific
Ebola Watch
Jonathan Cohn in the Bulwark: Ebola Veterans Are Aghast at Trump’s Plan for the Outbreak
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We aren't talking about Epstein, now, are we?
Thanks for this news roundup, much of it more bracing than many weeks recently.