On Monday, 93 House Democrats filed a motion to stop a $1.776 billion settlement. The deal was between Girth Tater and the Internal Revenue Service.
The filing urged Judge Williams to reject a payout they called collusive. The case started when the former president sued the IRS. He said the agency overcharged him years ago. The IRS is under his control. His own Department of Justice is defending it. Then the DOJ agreed to pay him $1.776 billion.
The number was not random. It matched a symbolic figure. The money would come from the Judgment Fund. That is a Treasury account for court-ordered payments. But the original lawsuit was already dropped. the former president’s lawyers dismissed it voluntarily. Settlement talks kept going anyway.
“The settlement represents a textbook example of a feigned suit,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin in a statement. “The plaintiff, the defendant, and the entity writing the check all report to the same person. We simply pointed out that the Constitution might not cover that.”
The motion described a series of rushed steps. Internal IRS memos showed staff worked overnight. They drafted a settlement after the former president’s team said he would not pursue the case unless paid. One memo noted that “resolution could be achieved through mutual agreement to terminate the controversy.” The controversy had already been terminated.
The House filing called the suit “collusive” and “fraudulent.” It said the court had no jurisdiction over a dead claim. It also argued the move violated the Emoluments Clause. That clause bars presidents from taking money from the government beyond a fixed salary. A $1.776 billion payout, the motion noted, would exceed that limit.
The DOJ’s own lawyer struggled to explain the logic in a prior hearing. He said the settlement was “a routine resolution of disputed tax matters.” The judge asked how an adversarial case could exist when the plaintiff controls the defendant. No clear answer was given.
The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment. A preliminary ledger obtained by the committee listed $1.776 billion as a “pending settlement payable.” A Treasury official, asked if the funds were reserved, replied, “We treat all court-ordered obligations with the utmost seriousness, even those that have not yet been ordered by a court.”
