Judge Skeptical of Corrupt IRS Settlement with Trump
INSIDE: Kathleen Williams ... Jeanine Pirro ... Jay Powell
When Everyone Is on the Same Side
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams of Miami expressed skepticism on Friday that President Trump and the IRS he oversees are sufficiently adverse to give her subject matter jurisdiction over his $10 billion claim for the leak of his personal tax information.
To put it more plainly, if there’s not a true controversy between adverse parties, there’s no case here. To add to the irony, it’s Trump’s robust application of the unitary executive theory that is causing him trouble.
Here’s the key footnote in her order:
![2 President Trump has issued multiple executive orders which shape the relationship of
the agencies of the executive branch to his presidency. For example, “[n]o employee of
the executive branch acting in their official capacity may advance an interpretation of the
law . . . that contravenes the President[’s] . . . opinion on a matter of law, including but not
limited to . . . positions advanced in litigation[.]” Exec. Order No. 14215, § 7. One such
employee of the executive branch, the Attorney General, has a statutory obligation to
defend the IRS when it is hailed into court, but then is ostensibly required by executive
mandate to adhere to the President’s opinion on a matter of law in such a case. This
raises questions over whether the Parties here are truly antagonistic to each other.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!pD8G!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7e144b6c-20f3-482f-b074-d29b73498157_804x228.jpeg "2 President Trump has issued multiple executive orders which shape the relationship of
the agencies of the executive branch to his presidency. For example, “[n]o employee of
the executive branch acting in their official capacity may advance an interpretation of the
law . . . that contravenes the President[’s] . . . opinion on a matter of law, including but not
limited to . . . positions advanced in litigation[.]” Exec. Order No. 14215, § 7. One such
employee of the executive branch, the Attorney General, has a statutory obligation to
defend the IRS when it is hailed into court, but then is ostensibly required by executive
mandate to adhere to the President’s opinion on a matter of law in such a case. This
raises questions over whether the Parties here are truly antagonistic to each other.")
Williams ordered more briefing from the parties on the adverseness issue.
With everything that happened this weekend, I didn’t want this new roadblock to a potentially massive looting of the Treasury to get overlooked.
The Corruption: Meme Coin Edition
President Trump made a quick trip to Mar-a-Lago to hawk his meme coin at a Saturday luncheon before returning to D.C. for the ill-fated White House Correspondents Dinner that night.
Putting the Toothpaste Back in the Tube
All that needs to be said — and much that doesn’t – has already been uttered about the attempted massacre of the nation’s leaders Saturday night
The pervasiveness of political violence will be a hallmark of the Trump era. Full stop.
While there is no one cause, Trump himself is dazzled by violence. He instigates it. He enables it. He revels in it.
Combine his fetishization of violence with our combustible politics and a civilian population absolutely awash in firearms, and historians won’t be puzzling over the why for long.
I take some consolation that previous periods of political violence in America, most recently the 1960s-70s, have ebbed and we’ve been able to return to a more peaceable baseline.
Security Theater
Lots of arm-chair quarterbacking about the security protocols for the Saturday night event, most of it misplaced. For a cold-eyed assessment, Garrett Graff has you covered.
SPLC Indictment Gets Worse and Worse
The closer you look at the Trump DOJ’s bogus indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the worse it gets:
Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman: “This is, above all, a deeply dishonest indictment—politically motivated, intellectually bankrupt, and designed to leave a lasting false impression in the minds of people who will never look past the headline …”
Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann: The Poverty of the DOJ Indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center
Hats off to reporter Phil Williams, who observes that right-wing extremists are not buying the Trump administration’s claim that the SPLC was funding extremism.
Pirro Ends Sham Investigation of Fed
D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced Friday that she has ended her retributive probe of the Federal Reserve and Chairman Jay Powell, instead referring the matter to the inspector general for the Federal Reserve.
It’s not clear how much this is a permanent retreat by the administration versus a tactical sidestepping of Sen. Thom Tillis’ hold on the nomination of Kevin Warsh to succeed Powell. In response, Tillis did withdraw his hold, which should clear the way for Warsh’s Senate confirmation.
Mass Deportation Watch
In a ruling on Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending asylum access at the border.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Friday cleared the way for Texas to enforce its own controversial anti-immigration law, but delayed the effective date of its ruling until May 15.
Many of the newly hired 140 immigration judges — replacing insufficiently harsh judges already purged by Trump administration — lack immigration law experience and are receiving less training than previous judges, the WaPo reports.
Lawless Boat Strike No. 53
Two people were killed Friday in a U.S. strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the eastern Pacific, raising the death toll to at least 182 in Trump’s lawless campaign.
Lawless Boat Strike No. 54
Just two days later, three more people were killed Sunday in the eastern Pacific in the seventh U.S. strike this month against alleged drug-smuggling boats, bringing the death toll to at least 185 since the campaign began last summer.
Mexico: CIA Not Authorized to Participate In Anti-Drug Ops
The Mexican government said Saturday that two CIA agents killed in a car crash last weekend after the raid of a drug lab were not authorized to participate in operations in Mexico. In related news, the Ministry of Security said one of the U.S. agents entered Mexico as a visitor while the other entered with a diplomatic passport.
The Purges: NSF Edition
On Friday afternoon, President Trump purported to fire all of the members of the independent National Science Board, which oversees the National Science Foundation, the funding engine for much of U.S. public scientific research.
2026 Ephemera
All four Black Republicans in the House are leaving Congress after their terms end.
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Gosh so much news I didn’t read elsewhere!! The House Republicans’ loss of 4 Black representatives!! Great work👍
Truly a despicable collection of grifters, crooks, and generally unqualified people. No wonder the world is worried about Superpower Suicide, as Prof. Tim Snyder put it.