Recent court filings from President Donald Trump and his family show that they acted in concert with the Department of Justice in an effort to appeal a ruling against an expansive settlement with the Internal Revenue Service after a federal judge had used the same type of collusion as a reason to block the agreement in the first place.
The family said on Monday that sanctions over the settlement should be paused in a letter to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where it is fighting penalties a judge imposed over its dropped lawsuit against the IRS.
The letter was filed on behalf of Donald Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, the Trump Organization and two of their lawyers, Alejandro Brito and former White House attorney Daniel Epstein.
"Appellants agree that the district court's erroneous Stay Order … further demonstrates the need for an immediate stay pending appeal," wrote Christopher Oprison, a DLA Piper lawyer representing the family.
The court's docket lists the letter as a response to a Justice Department filing. Under federal appeals rules, such a response is how the opposing side answers, according to a practice guide by the law firm Gentry Locke.
The Justice Department represents the IRS and the Treasury Department, the agencies the Trumps sued, which makes it the family's opponent on appeal, according to court filings.
Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter filed the department's notice Sept. 24, attaching U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams' Sept. 14 order refusing to pause her sanctions.
"This Court should grant an immediate stay," McCotter wrote.
Both filings accuse Williams of ignoring United States v. Nixon, the 1974 Supreme Court ruling in the Watergate tapes case. McCotter wrote that she refused "yet again" to address it.
The family's letter says the ruling rejects the idea that the chain of command inside the executive branch, by itself, rules out a real legal fight.
"If the order below is left unstayed, this Court and every district court in this Circuit should prepare for an onslaught of sanctions motions and orders against every claim, lawyer, party, or settlement that any interloper or district judge personally dislikes—precedent, logic, jurisdiction, the Constitution, and the facts all be damned," McCotter warned.
Williams issued the sanctions July 13, finding that the Trumps and the government were never real opponents, a basic requirement for any federal lawsuit, according to her 56-page order.
The Trumps sued in January, seeking $10 billion over an IRS contractor's leak of Donald Trump's tax returns, the order said. They dropped the case in May as the Justice Department announced a settlement creating a $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund."
The next day, Todd Blanche, then the acting attorney general and a former criminal defense lawyer for Donald Trump, signed an order shielding the family from IRS audits, Williams wrote. Blanche is now the attorney general.
Williams referred Brito to the Florida Bar, barred Epstein for a year from seeking permission to handle cases in her district and forbade the parties from citing the deal in official proceedings as a settlement of the lawsuit, the order says.
"It is risible to suggest that there was ever adverseness between the Parties," Williams wrote.
Williams stressed that in the 109 days the case was open, no government lawyer filed a notice of appearance, a basic step to join a case.
"[T]he Lead Plaintiff [Donald Trump] and the Government are one, a fully realized unitary interest," Williams declared.
She also pointed to Blanche's decision in June to kill the fund on his own, without the family formally signing on. That move, she wrote, showed that "all Parties were aligned, and ultimately, undifferentiated."
"In sum, the facts before this Court demonstrate there was never adverseness between the Parties; there was never a case or controversy; and there was never a question as to who would prevail," Williams concluded.
