Threatening Me With A Good Time

LOL ok 👍🏽 https://t.co/XNzYzqLEZ7 pic.twitter.com/x5R3OUlxeh

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) June 13, 2026

Trump’s lawyers invoked a federal court rule that allows plaintiffs in a case to drop it early in the litigation without explanation or substantive involvement by the judge. On the same day the suit was dismissed, the settlement — which included the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and sweeping protection from IRS audits for Trump’s family and businesses — was announced by the Justice Department.

U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams closed out Trump’s lawsuit last month in response to Trump’s request to drop it.

However, 35 former federal judges subsequently urged Williams to reopen the case, arguing that the court had been defrauded by a lawsuit that was a sham from the outset.

Williams, an Obama appointee, called the former judges’ allegations “grievous” and ordered Trump’s attorneys to respond to them in writing. She did not order any response from government lawyers, who never formally appeared in the litigation.

The filing Friday from Trump’s legal team urged Williams to abandon her nascent inquiry, saying that once the case was dismissed, her role in the matter had ended. No matter the validity of the subsequent settlement with the Justice Department, Trump’s lawyers said, the court has no business superintending its terms. The former judges had no role in the case, and certainly no power to revive a lawsuit that had already been dismissed, they argued.

“Settlement is not evidence of collusion, which did not exist,” Trump’s attorneys contended, “it is evidence of a rational litigation decision.”

Just prior to the settlement, Williams had raised questions about whether the parties to the case were truly adverse since Trump had ultimate control over both the attorneys representing him and the U.S. government. However, the submission Friday stresses that two of Trump’s sons and the Trump Organization were plaintiffs in the case alongside the president.

The filing by Trump’s attorneys suggests that if Williams formally reopens the case, Trump will immediately ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to shut it down.

There are legitimate fact questions of collusion leading to a fraud on the court. That is a matter I believe the court is empowered to investigate under its contempt powers. 

I’d be interested to see the 11th Circuit weigh in on that.

The Judgement Act in its plain language (I haven’t studied the jurisprudence of it) says the fund is for settlement of litigation. But if this wasn’t legitimate legislation, whither then the settlement?

Trump’s lawyers say there was no collusion. Prove it.

As Jack Nicholson said in “Batman:” “Co-mahnce au fest-ivahl!”