{"id":3371,"date":"2026-07-15T15:36:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3371"},"modified":"2026-07-15T15:36:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:36:47","slug":"facts-are-stubborn-things-judge-ruling-a-masterclass-on-smacking-down-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3371","title":{"rendered":"‘Facts are stubborn things’: Judge ruling a ‘masterclass’ on smacking down Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

On Tuesday, a federal judge issued a ruling on President Donald Trump\u2019s controversial IRS \u201cslush fund\u201d settlement that attorney and legal analyst Jay Kuo calls a \u201cmasterclass in legal analysis and logic.\u201d As a result, Trump\u2019s effort to reward his loyalists has been seriously hindered. <\/p>\n

Read more Republican corners attorney general hopeful over claim Trump IRS fund is \u2018moot\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Kuo, \u201cU.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams, an Obama appointee sitting in Miami, handed down a in Trump v. Internal Revenue Service, voiding the \u2018settlement\u2019 between President Trump and his own Justice Department and referring two of his lawyers for possible discipline. The fact pattern she tackled \u2014 a sitting president suing an agency he controls, then \u2018settling\u2019 with himself to secure a windfall benefiting his political allies \u2014 was straight out of a law professor\u2019s box of exam tricks. But it was no match for Judge Williams. She not only dismantled the government\u2019s claims, but also identified new novel concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuo says that it was clear where the decision was headed when the judge wrote in its first pages that she declined to accept \u201cthe credulous exercise of divorcing President Trump\u2019s current job title from an understanding of what happened here.\u201d In other words, she was making clear the \u201cconflict of interest\u201d that arose from the president overseeing settlements with himself. <\/p>\n

Furthermore, the legal precedent had already been set that courts \u201cdo not engage in the academic pastime of rendering judgments in favor of persons against themselves.\u201d In other words, Trump can\u2019t be on \u201cboth sides of his own case,\u201d which was precisely what Judge Williams found, concluding that the \u201cLead Plaintiff and the Government are one, a fully realized unitary interest,\u201d and that it was \u201crisible\u201d to suggest \u201cthat there was ever adverseness between the Parties.\u201d So essentially, notes Kuo, the judge was agreeing with Trump\u2019s own assessment offered months ago when he declared, \u201cI\u2019m suing myself<\/u>.\u201d It turns out that\u2019s illegal. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, Trump\u2019s attorneys had already argued successfully to the Supreme Court that no one in the Executive Branch can be legally \u201cadverse\u201d to the Chief Executive. But now they were arguing the opposite: that the IRS and Treasury were \u201cindependent adversaries\u201d of Trump. The judge noted this contradiction. <\/p>\n

At this point, says Kuo, the case was essentially over, but the judge went on to support her opinion with a number of other factors. For example, Attorney General Todd Blanche had ordered that the IRS be barred from auditing Trump, but federal statute expressly makes it a crime \u201cfor any \u2018applicable person,\u2019 including the president and specified White House officials, to \u2018request, directly or indirectly\u2019 that the IRS start or stop an audit of a specific taxpayer. Williams wrote that the audit-immunity provision \u2018directly contravenes\u2019 the statute.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s forever war has entered a \u2018scary\u2019 new phase: Nobel economist<\/a><\/p>\n

She also raised questions as to whether Trump was following constitutional requirements that he \u201cfaithfully execute\u201d the laws rather than suspend them for his own benefit. Then there was the constitutional question of \u201cemoluments\u201d beyond the president\u2019s fixed salary, and the judge suggested Trump\u2019s settlement may qualify as illegal compensation. <\/p>\n

Beyond that she cited a number of ethics codes, but according to Kuo, the whole opinion can be boiled down to five \u201cuncontroverted facts: 1. Donald Trump is President. 2. President Trump controls the actions of the Secretary of the Treasury Department, the IRS Commissioner and all Executive Branch actors. 3. President Trump, through Executive Order 14215, also controls the litigation strategy and interpretation of the laws guiding the Department of Justice. 4. For the 109 days that this case was pending, no attorney representing the United States filed a notice of appearance or any document indicating the government\u2019s position, interest or awareness of the matter. 5. Defendants\u2019 actions are consonant with the dictates of Executive Order 14215.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause there was never a proper case before the Court,\u201d she therefore concluded, \u201cthere was nothing to settle.\u201d <\/p>\n

She ended her opinion by quoting John Adams, noting, \u201cfacts are stubborn things.\u201d Whatever the parties wished, whatever they\u2019d already agreed among themselves before ever walking into a courtroom, she wrote, they \u201ccannot alter the state of the facts or evade the rule of law.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read more Trump spiraling because everyone knows his threats are \u2018not to be taken seriously\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, a federal judge issued a ruling on President Donald Trump\u2019s controversial IRS \u201cslush fund\u201d settlement that attorney and legal analyst Jay Kuo calls a \u201cmasterclass in legal analysis and logic.\u201d As a result, Trump\u2019s effort to reward his loyalists has been seriously hindered. According to K…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n'Facts are stubborn things': Judge ruling a 'masterclass' on smacking down Trump - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3371\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Facts are stubborn things': Judge ruling a 'masterclass' on smacking down Trump - Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Tuesday, a federal judge issued a ruling on President Donald Trump\u2019s controversial IRS \u201cslush fund\u201d settlement that attorney and legal analyst Jay Kuo calls a \u201cmasterclass in legal analysis and logic.\u201d As a result, Trump\u2019s effort to reward his loyalists has been seriously hindered. 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