A coalition of 35 former federal judges filed a motion Wednesday asking U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams to reopen the dispute between President Donald Trump and the federal government that was resolved last week by creating a contested $1.776 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund. The retired jurists contend the settlement may have misled the court and call for an inquiry into possible fraud and collusion.
The filing adds momentum to growing scrutiny of the Justice Department's announcement that it would end a lawsuit in which the president accused the Internal Revenue Service of allowing his tax returns to leak. The settlement centers on a multibillion-dollar fund intended to compensate people who claim they were harmed by government 'weaponization,' and includes a pledge that the IRS will not pursue claims against the president based on prior tax returns.
Judge Williams had signaled last month that she intended to examine whether a suit between the president and his own administration satisfied the Constitution's 'case or controversy' requirement — a threshold question about whether the parties were truly adversarial. Before she completed that inquiry, Williams granted a joint request from lawyers for the president and the government to dismiss the case, and the parties announced the settlement the same day.
The group of retired judges — which includes prominent jurists such as appellate Judge J. Michael Luttig and former District Judges Nancy Gertner and Shira Scheindlin — now asks Williams to set aside the dismissal so the court can investigate whether the parties deceived the judiciary. Their filing argues the dismissal prevented the court from completing its constitutional inquiry and that the settlement was used to justify what the filing describes as a transfer of $1.776 billion from the federal treasury.
'The settlement deal is a product of collusion and is itself a fraud on the Court,' the retired judges wrote, adding that the judge's closing order stated 'there is no settlement of record,' which they say indicates the court was deceived.
The filing asserts that Williams has the authority to set aside judgments obtained by fraud and asks the court to probe whether there was an actual case or controversy and whether negotiations were conducted at arm's length. The retired judges urge an inquiry into both the settlement's genesis and the process by which the dismissal was entered.
The settlement has prompted bipartisan concern. Congressional Democrats have labeled the fund a potential 'slush fund' that could benefit allies of the president, while an increasing number of Republicans have expressed public and private reservations — including whether the fund could be used to compensate individuals such as Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by the president. The Justice Department has defended the arrangement, saying applications will have no partisan requirements and that awards would be overseen by a five-member board appointed by the attorney general.
CBS News has reached out to the Justice Department for comment. The court's next steps will determine whether the dismissal stands or whether Williams will reopen the case and resume her examination of the constitutional issues at stake.
