The Justice Department has no idea how to handle President Donald Trump’s bizarre decision to sue his own administration for the handsome sum of $10 billion, a new report alleges.
Trump filed a lawsuit against the IRS in January, accusing the service of failing to prevent a former contractor from leaking his tax returns in 2020—despite the IRS being under Trump’s control as president at the time.
Trump is now threatening to put his own officials, including his former defense attorney, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in a position to approve a taxpayer-funded settlement worth more than 150,000 times the average American’s salary for him.
DOJ and White House insiders tell The New York Times, which previously published findings from the leaked documents, that Trump’s unprecedented move has sparked a frenzied debate behind the scenes on how to handle his complaint ahead of a legal deadline of April 19.
Some officials are reportedly noting that there are clear flaws in Trump’s case and that it would not hold up in court, according to the Times. Others argue there is no feasible way to appoint a government lawyer to contest his claims without a significant conflict of interest, given that the president has signed an executive order requiring federal attorneys to abide by his interpretation of the law.
Trump’s lawyers served the IRS with papers in the suit on Feb. 18, starting a countdown of 60 days for a government response. Justice Department officials are reportedly weighing delaying proceedings until after he leaves office in January 2029.
This would depend on Trump not pushing ahead with yet another unprecedented move, like running for a Constitution-busting third term in the White House. Even if Trump decided to openly defy the law of the land, his tanking approval rating—dragged down by war with Iran and spiking gas prices, which now exceed an average of $4 a gallon—suggests he would not bode well in a fourth presidential election.
Another option might be to request that the Florida judge in the case, a Barack Obama appointee, find another way to address the inherent conflict of interest in having Trump officials defend a case against Trump’s lawyers, perhaps by appointing an independent team as a stand-in for the DOJ.
Trump, for his part, has previously claimed he plans “to give 100 percent to charity” in the event the court finds in his favor. The president has funneled other settlement money—including the $16 million settlement he won from Paramount/CBS and $15 million from ABC News—to fund his presidential library, which he says will most likely be a commercial hotel.
Charles Duffy, a former attorney with the DOJ’s tax division, nevertheless told the Times: “It’s outrageous that the head of the executive would shake down an agency like this.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Justice Department and the White House.
