Justice Department Debates Response to Trump’s $10 Billion IRS Lawsuit
Justice Department Weighs Response to Trump’s IRS Lawsuit
The Justice Department is struggling to decide how to respond to President Trump’s lawsuit seeking at least $10 billion from the Internal Revenue Service, according to two people familiar with the matter. Department lawyers are trying to resolve the ethical questions raised by the case before a mid-April deadline.
Trump took the unusual step in late January of suing a federal agency that he oversees. He accused the IRS of failing to do enough to prevent the leak of his tax returns to The New York Times in 2020. The lawsuit immediately raised questions about whether, and how, administration officials could defend the government in a case brought by the head of the executive branch.
The government has not yet responded to the suit. Inside the Justice Department and the White House, senior officials are engaged in what people familiar with the deliberations described as a messy and complicated debate over the next steps.
Ethical and Legal Questions
Former Justice Department officials see clear flaws in the president’s case, according to the people familiar with the discussions. But some Trump administration officials are concerned that assigning a government lawyer to fight the suit would create an unworkable conflict, since that lawyer would ultimately report to the president.
Defending the case could also run against a White House executive order requiring government lawyers to follow the president’s interpretation of the law. Those overlapping issues have complicated the department’s effort to formulate a response.
Trump’s lawyers served the government with the lawsuit on Feb. 18, giving the Justice Department 60 days to answer.
Options Under Consideration
One option being discussed is seeking to delay the case. That could mean asking for more time to respond or asking the judge to pause the lawsuit until after Trump leaves office in 2029.
Another possibility is for the Justice Department to ask Judge Kathleen M. Williams of the Southern District of Florida, who is presiding over the case, to take action to address the government lawyers’ conflict of interest. According to the people familiar with the matter, the judge could, for example, appoint an independent counsel to defend the case instead of the Justice Department.
For now, officials remain divided over how to proceed in a lawsuit that presents both legal and institutional complications for the administration.