The Daily Fuckup

A federal judge in Florida has issued a blunt postscript to a Trump-linked IRS case, saying the lawsuit was filed for an improper purpose and that the process used to present the matter to the court was not legitimate. The order came after the case had already been voluntarily dismissed, so it was not a ruling on an active merits fight. It was a rebuke of how the matter was handled.

Judge Kathleen Williams referred Trump lawyer Alejandro Brito to the Florida Bar for possible discipline. She also sent the order to bar authorities in New York and Washington, D.C., where complaints have been filed against Justice Department lawyers Todd Blanche and Stanley Woodward. In a separate sanction, Williams barred Daniel Epstein from filing new cases in the Southern District of Florida for up to a year.

The judge did not void the settlement. Instead, she said the government cannot describe the agreement as the product of a legitimate legal process. That distinction matters: the case is over, but the court’s criticism of the way it was packaged and presented remains on the record.

The order leaves behind a formal finding that could follow the lawyers involved long after the tax dispute itself has faded. For the parties, the legal fight is closed. For the court, the conduct that produced the filing is not.