Judge Says Trump-Backed $1.8 Billion Fund Deal Was 'Premised on Deception'

A Florida judge has ruled that a $1.8 billion fund proposed in a Trump-backed deal was "premised on deception" and amounted to a "fraud against the court." The Justice Department then dropped the proposal, according to The Guardian.

The judge, Kathleen Williams, made the ruling in the matter of the fund. The money was meant to pay alleged victims of what was described as political persecution under former President Joe Biden. It was part of a proposed settlement with the Internal Revenue Service, the US tax agency. Such settlements are agreements that resolve a dispute without a trial.

The settlement arose from a separate case. Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax information to the New York Times. A provision connected to that dispute remains in effect. It grants Trump, his family and the Trump Organization, his family's business, immunity from IRS investigations and prosecutions over past tax matters. Immunity means protection from being investigated or charged. The provision is described as compensation for the leak.

Opposition to the fund came from the courts as well as the public. Democracy Defenders Fund, a nonprofit group, and a coalition of 35 former judges, including J. Michael Luttig, filed a lawsuit in July to block the $1.8 billion fund. Democracy Defenders Fund and the Campaign Legal Center, another nonprofit, have been behind several major lawsuits against Trump's financial arrangements.

Those lawsuits target a range of activities. One challenges what are described as schemes to reduce Trump's potential tax liabilities, meaning the taxes he may owe. Another concerns a plan to boost Truth Social, the social media platform Trump owns a stake in, by offering big investors early access to his posts. A third concerns the use of federal funds to pay for partisan advertisements touting his record ahead of the midterm elections.

On the advertising question, a federal judge in New York rebuked Trump for channeling $20 million in public funds into ads promoting his administration's achievements. The midterms in which those ads were aimed ended in a heavy defeat for Republicans, Trump's party.

The lawsuits have not yet been settled, and the immunity provision remains in place.