A former federal prosecutor says President Donald Trump's Justice Department just locked itself into a fight over his taxpayer windfall that it can't win. Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney, argued in a Thursday episode of "Talking Feds" that the DOJ's new brief to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals hinges on the deal being a genuine settlement.
That's the only way it can draw on a settlement fund Congress created, he explained, and the DOJ can't prove it. "The administration and Department of Justice are doubling down, or you could say quadrupling down or more, on every lousy argument in the Donald Trump tax case," Litman said.
Trump sued his own IRS for $10 billion over a leak of his tax information by a contractor, a claim Litman called "completely meritless" and too late to bring. Rather than fight it, the DOJ agreed to a voluntary dismissal, a $1.776 billion fund and a promise shielding Trump from IRS audits of his past taxes.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams has since…