A US federal judge on Monday canceled the agreement between Donald Trump and the tax administration which would have given the president and his relatives retroactive tax immunity, in a decision with vitriol against the octogenarian billionaire and his government.
Donald Trump filed a complaint with his sons Eric and Donald Jr in January against the American Tax Administration (IRS) and demanded US$10 billion in damages for failing to block the leak of his tax returns during his first term (2017-2021).
In exchange for the withdrawal of this complaint, the American president obtained in May the creation by the Department of Justice of an anti-instrumentalization fund of nearly US$1.8 billion for his supporters whom he said were persecuted under his predecessor Joe Biden.
After a first court decision at the end of May prohibiting until further notice any use of this fund, denounced by the Democratic opposition as a “slush fund” for the billionaire, the Republican government declared that it would renounce it.
But with this agreement, Donald Trump also obtained that himself, his family and his businesses benefit from retroactive tax immunity, that is to say that the IRS cannot challenge their past tax declarations.
Judge Kathleen Williams in Florida initially closed the Trump family’s complaint after the announced withdrawal.
However, it was then seized by 35 former federal judges who affirmed that the court had been “deceived”, because the plaintiffs – in this case the president and his sons – had deliberately failed to inform the magistrate of the agreement concluded immediately afterwards with the Department of Justice in exchange for this withdrawal.
The agreement was finally swept aside by the judge on Monday.
In her decision, she considers that the initial complaint was filed “for an improper purpose” since the main complainant, Donald Trump, leads the other party as president.
According to the judge, the two parties “worked in tandem and were never actually adversaries.”
The complaint represented “an attempt to provide some legitimacy” to this agreement, she believes, in a desire to provide immunity to the president and his relatives, and to “grab billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined by law”.
The magistrate also referred the Trump family lawyer, Alejandro Brito, to the Florida Bar for potential disciplinary measures.
Requested by AFP, the White House and the Ministry of Justice did not immediately respond.
