The appeals court’s ruling was largely technical, with the panel finding a request for relief was likely premature because none of Trump’s sanctioned lawyers have yet to face any actual consequences.
A federal appeals panel has rejected President Donald Trump’s request to immediately lift sanctions imposed by a lower-court judge in a case involving a controversial “anti-weaponization” fund.
According to Politico, a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to stay U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Wiliams’ July ruling.
In that decision, Williams found that Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service—filed over the leak of the president’s past tax returns—was designed to provide a pretext for a settlement eliminating Trump’s personal tax liability, along with the obligations of his company and many of his family members. As part of the deal, the Justice Department agreed to set up a $1.776 billion fund to compensate alleged victims of past political persecutions.
Williams, an Obama appointee, referred Trump attorney Alejandro Brito to the Florida Bar for discipline and prohibited lawyer Daniel Epstein from practicing before any federal district court in Florida for at least one year. She also prohibited the sanctioned parties from publicly describing the IRS settlement as a resolution of claims being handled by her court.
Politico reports that Trump’s legal team appealed part of Williams’ decision, asking the appeals panel to lift the sanctions and unencumber their ability to speak on the IRS settlement.
The appeals court’s ruling was largely technical, with the panel finding the request was likely premature as none of the sanctioned lawyers have yet to face any actual consequences. Williams, meanwhile, is still considering a request to compel Trump to pay the attorneys’ fees incurred by those who challenged the settlement’s legality.
“As we said from the beginning, Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS was a sham, and the slush fund and global release details that flowed from it were, too,” said attorneys Norm Eisen and Matthew Platkin, who are representing a coalition of former federal judges opposed to the settlement. “The Eleventh Circuit saw this collusive scheme for exactly what it is and refused to stay the consequences. We are glad to have played a crucial role in the judiciary’s independent examination of the collusive conduct in this case, and we will continue to do so.”
Sources
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