Attorney General Todd Blanche deployed the Justice Department to rescue President Donald Trump's embattled IRS settlement the day after he was sworn in, court records show.
The settlement, reached in May, shielded Trump, his family, and his businesses from IRS audits in exchange for dropping a $10 billion lawsuit against the agency, court records show.
Late Wednesday night, Politico's Josh Gertstein flagged a new filing in the case.
"Trump Justice Department backs Trump's private lawyers in bid to have appeals court block and overturn judge's order imposing fraud-on-the-court sanctions for Trump-IRS settlement," he reported.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams threatened that deal in July, issuing a sanctions order against Trump's legal team and a gag order barring anyone from referring to the agreement in any official proceeding, according to the filing.
Democrats had predicted Blanche would move to help.
"He is about to become Trump's sword against his adversaries and shield against any scrutiny," Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) warned from the Senate floor during the confirmation fight.
"He will never do what's best for the American people. He will only do what's best for Donald Trump," Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said ahead of the committee vote advancing Blanche's nomination.
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee had also raised alarms over the same settlement.
Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) refused to advance Blanche's nomination without written guarantees that the deal's tax audit immunity was limited only to the lawsuit's plaintiffs and that its proposed $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund" was dead, according to NPR.
Before being confirmed, Blanche gave the senators assurances in writing.
"We are pleased that the Department of Justice has issued a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund," Cornyn and Tillis announced jointly. Blanche also said that he would limit the scope of the IRS audit deal.
The Senate confirmed Blanche 50-49 on August 8. He was sworn in Monday at the White House, PBS News reported.
Blanche's Justice Department brought the fight to the Eleventh Circuit the next day, filing a brief in support of overturning Judge Williams's order, according to the court filing.
The court filing, signed by Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter, hit the docket the following day.
"Nobody can dispute that they indeed did suffer significant harm," McCotter wrote, defending the legitimacy of Trump's original lawsuit over the leak of his tax returns by a government contractor.
"The Complaint sought $10 billion, and the settlement provided them no money but rather an apology," McCotter wrote, arguing the deal was the product of a genuine legal dispute, not a political arrangement.
"It certainly would not have taken 109 days to reach a settlement," he added. "Collusive settlements hide exceedingly poorly in plain sight."
