President Donald Trump will funnel a potential IRS payout into a family shell company, a political analyst has claimed.
Trump and his sons are negotiating with the Internal Revenue Service to settle a $10 billion lawsuit without trial. Trump filed the lawsuit after taking office, claiming an IRS contractor leaked his tax information. The motion for settlement extension was filed with IRS consent, requesting time for parties to engage in discussions and avoid protracted litigation.
Trump acknowledged in January that he is essentially negotiating with himself, stating he could make the settlement "a substantial amount" before directing funds to charities.
Heather Delaney Reese believes that, should Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service be a success, the payout will not be headed to charity.
Reese wrote, "Trump and his lawyers are currently in settlement talks with the Department of Justice over this lawsuit. The same DOJ that he controls. If those talks result in a payout, it would be Trump’s own administration writing Trump and his family a check from the United States Treasury. That would be taxpayer money being spent.
"And if he does donate the winnings to charity, as he suggested on Air Force One, do not hold your breath waiting to find out which one. This is a family with a history of creating entities that look like charities on paper.
"The Trump Foundation was shut down under court supervision after the New York Attorney General found that Trump had repeatedly used its funds for his own personal, business, and political interests.
"He was ordered to pay $2 million in damages. He made 19 admissions of illegal activity. His three adult children were required to undergo mandatory charity law training as part of the settlement. So when he says the money could go to charity, it might not mean what we imagine that to mean."
Reese went on to suggest that the lawsuit could be set to collapse by May after a federal judge asked a pointed question about the point of the suit.
"But on Friday, a federal judge named Kathleen Williams, an Obama appointee sitting in Miami, looked at the case and asked a question that cut through what this lawsuit really was about: money," Reese wrote. "She pointed out that Trump is the sitting president who directly oversees both the IRS and the Treasury Department.
"His named adversaries in this lawsuit are agencies whose decisions are subject to his direction. She questioned whether the parties are even 'sufficiently adverse to each other' for the lawsuit to be constitutional under Article III, which requires an actual controversy between genuinely opposing parties."
