Miami-based U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams found that Trump and the IRS, which he oversees as president, were not truly ​adverse to each other as is required in civil lawsuits under the U.S. Constitution. Williams referred a Trump ​lawyer in the case, Alejandro Brito, and senior Justice Department officials who signed off on ⁠the settlement to state bar authorities to determine if their actions violated legal ethics rules.

“This action was never about ​a party seeking judicial resolution of a legal issue or a factual dispute,” Williams wrote. The judge said it was ​instead an attempt to “provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the president and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law.”

Williams’ order bars any of the parties in the case, ​including Trump, his adult sons and his namesake company, from referring to the settlement or citing any of its ​terms in future legal proceedings, a move that could nullify the portion of the agreement barring the IRS from pursuing any audits ‌into past ⁠tax claims involving Trump or his businesses.

This is the minimum amount we should expect from the rule of law, but I’ll take whatever wins we can get. Good for this judge for stating the obvious, which apparently only heroes have the courage to do in 2026.