{"id":24218,"date":"2026-08-01T13:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=24218"},"modified":"2026-08-01T13:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:36:12","slug":"trump-appeals-ruling-that-found-his-10-billion-irs-suit-aimed-to-manipulate-legal-proceedings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=24218","title":{"rendered":"Trump appeals ruling that found his $10 billion IRS suit aimed to \u2018manipulate\u2019 legal proceedings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\n<p id=\"anchor-e46d1c\" class=\"body-graf\">President Donald Trump on Friday took the first step in appealing a federal judge\u2019s ruling <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/donald-trump\/judge-says-trump-administration-attempted-manipulate-judicial-process-rcna587321\" target=\"_blank\">that questioned the legality<\/a> of a lawsuit filed by the president, two of his sons and the Trump Organization against the IRS.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-e001c9\" class=\"body-graf\">The Trumps filed notice that they would appeal the July 13 ruling by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams that said the $10 billion suit was for an \u201cimproper purpose.\u201d The case led to the Justice Department creating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/donald-trump\/trump-voluntarily-drops-10-billion-lawsuit-irs-leaked-tax-records-rcna345193\" target=\"_blank\">a $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund<\/a> as part of a settlement that included an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/justice-department\/doj-agrees-not-pursue-tax-claims-trump-part-irs-deal-rcna345973\" target=\"_blank\">agreement that the government<\/a> would not investigate or seek any sort of payment from the president, his family members and companies on pending tax claims.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-12751d\" class=\"body-graf\">The IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the forthcoming appeal.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-e46fb3\" class=\"body-graf\">A spokesperson for Trump\u2019s legal team said Friday that the IRS \u201cwrongly allowed a rogue, politically-motivated employee to leak private and confidential information about President Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization\u201d to news outlets that was later \u201cillegally released to millions of people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-6e2b25\" class=\"body-graf\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/donald-trump\/former-irs-contractor-pleads-guilty-leaking-trump-tax-records-rcna120213\" target=\"_blank\">former IRS contractor<\/a> pleaded guilty in 2023 to stealing Trump\u2019s tax records and thousands of others in 2019 and 2020 before leaking them. He is serving a five-year prison term.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-4bc2e5\" class=\"body-graf\">The president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/donald-trump\/trump-sues-irs-treasury-department-10-billion-leaked-tax-records-rcna256626\" target=\"_blank\">sued the IRS and the Treasury Department<\/a> in January over allegations that the agency was at fault for an unauthorized release of his tax documents that led to a report in The New York Times that said Trump had paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017.<\/p>\n<section class=\"inline-video inline-video--in-body\" data-testid=\"inline-video\" id=\"anchor-f127d7\">\n<div class=\"inline-video__background\">\n<div class=\"inline-video__player\">\n<div class=\"styles_gridStackWrapper__Z_AMc styles_videoContainer___xc7B video-container paused\" data-testid=\"gamma-video-player\">\n<div class=\"styles_gridStackWrapper__Z_AMc videoSlate styles_videoSlate__IvkAP\"><picture class=\"\" data-testid=\"picture\" data-flavor=\"focal\"><source media=\"(min-width: 1240px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_focal-860x484,f_auto,q_auto:best\/mpx\/2704722219\/2026_07\/1785516167626_now_brk_guteirrez_trump_fund_260731_S3_1920x1080-2awf6k.jpg\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 758px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_focal-1000x563,f_auto,q_auto:best\/mpx\/2704722219\/2026_07\/1785516167626_now_brk_guteirrez_trump_fund_260731_S3_1920x1080-2awf6k.jpg\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 320px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_focal-760x428,f_auto,q_auto:best\/mpx\/2704722219\/2026_07\/1785516167626_now_brk_guteirrez_trump_fund_260731_S3_1920x1080-2awf6k.jpg\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_focal-760x428,f_auto,q_auto:best\/mpx\/2704722219\/2026_07\/1785516167626_now_brk_guteirrez_trump_fund_260731_S3_1920x1080-2awf6k.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p id=\"anchor-21a8fb\" class=\"body-graf\">In her ruling, Williams, a Barack Obama appointee, said Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/donald-trump\/federal-judge-questions-basis-trumps-10-billion-irs-lawsuit-rcna341984\" target=\"_blank\">sued the IRS over his leaked tax records<\/a> to \u201cmanipulate the judicial process\u201d rather than to \u201cvindicate rights.\u201d She also pointed out that Trump has jurisdiction over the Justice Department, Treasury Department and the IRS.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-4ec598\" class=\"body-graf\">The ruling said the Justice Department could not portray the settlement with Trump as a judicial agreement. The judge also ordered sanctions against acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer to Trump, and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, in addition to asking the Florida Bar Association to consider whether disciplinary action was necessary for one of Trump\u2019s attorneys, Alejandro Brito.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-d942ce\" class=\"body-graf\">The unprecedented settlement is at the center of a standoff between two Republican senators and the Justice Department that has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/donald-trump\/trump-defends-anti-weaponization-fund-complicating-blanche-nomination-rcna590254\" target=\"_blank\">stalled a vote<\/a> on Blanche\u2019s nomination for attorney general.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-c4edb5\" class=\"body-graf\">Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., have demanded that the DOJ agree to permanently shut down the \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund and narrow the audit protection deal before they will commit to advancing Blanche\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-0e9223\" class=\"endmark body-graf\">Trump on Friday morning acknowledged the fund is dead but told reporters, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/trump-administration\/live-blog\/trump-congress-2026-midterm-doj-ice-hamas-iran-live-updates-rcna590137\/rcrd118122?canonicalCard=true\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cI wish it weren\u2019t.\u201d<\/a> He did not answer a question about whether he\u2019d agree to limit the terms of the tax deal for himself, his family and his company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump on Friday took the first step in appealing a federal judge\u2019s ruling that questioned the legality of a lawsuit filed by the president, two of his sons and the Trump Organization against the IRS. The Trumps filed notice that they would appeal the July 13 ruling by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-07\/260731-president-trump-vsb-1806-87d55f.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}