DOJ Runs From Its Own Shadow

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The IRS settlement push isn't about money. It's about ducking a federal judge’s scrutiny.

Harry Litman

recently wrote a long piece explaining the greater importance of what looked like a routine briefing order in Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.

The order signaled that Judge Kathleen Williams of the Southern District of Florida was on to the administration’s scam of letting friends and allies—and maybe Trump himself—scoop up large sums of money from the treasury under the pretense of settling lawsuits that weren’t really lawsuits at all, as the court and constitution use the term.

Instead, they are collusive schemes in which the United States has “jumped the v.” By that I mean that the administration has cozied up to nasty characters that the previous DOJ had charged. And they may be poised to do it on a much larger scale, including the worst January 6 offenders whose convictions they recently wiped away.

A paradigm case is the recent “settlement” with Michael Flynn. Flynn pleaded guilty twice, Merrick Garland’s DOJ won the motion to dismiss his civil suit, and Blanche’s DOJ then turned around and paid him $1.25 million anyway—unabashedly calling it a remedy for “historic injustice.” The government had already won. It paid anyway. That’s the scheme in miniature: jump the v, shake hands across the caption, and invite your pal to help himself to federal tax dollars.

https://harrylitman.substack.com/p/the-art-of-the-dodge