President Trump withdrew his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS and replaced it with a $1.8 billion fund designed to compensate people claiming they were targeted by the Biden Justice Department. The move effectively settled the case while sidestepping Judge Kathleen Williams, who had expressed concern about self-dealing between the president and his former defense lawyer, Todd Blanche.

The original suit arose from the 2019 leak of Trump's tax returns to The New York Times and ProPublica. Trump, his sons, and the family business argued the IRS should have done more to prevent a contractor from leaking the information. Legal experts flagged flaws in the case, and the Justice Department had defended similar suits brought by non-presidential plaintiffs.

Critics denounced the fund as a political slush fund and one of the most corrupt acts in American history. Republicans now face pressure to explain their stance on allocating taxpayer money to Trump allies. The fund, set at $1.776 billion as a nod to 1776, draws from a Justice Department settlement account and stops accepting claims on Dec. 15, 2028.