Scott Bessent has to pretend to believe a lot of nonsense, but Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS is really making the Treasury Secretary work for it.
Last week, the president dropped his latest trollsuit, this time targeting the government over the leak of his tax returns in 2020 by Charles Littlejohn, a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton. The New York Times penned dozens of stories about those returns before the 2020 election, but Trump claims not to have learned about it until January of 2024, when Littlejohn was sentenced. This is convenient, since any civil suit over wrongful disclosure of tax information must be filed within two years. Less convenient is the fact that Trump’s own lawyer Alina Habba appeared at Littlejohn’s plea hearing on October 12, 2023 “on behalf of President Trump who was a victim, as we just heard, of this atrocity.”
But no matter! Trump demands $10 billion because the Times wrote mean stuff about his finances. Plus, he and his company had to “defend against a meritless civil suit brought by the New York Attorney General based on wrongful interpretation of unauthorized disclosures of their confidential tax returns and related tax information.” KA-CHING!
This puts Secretary Bessent in an awkward position — or, two awkward positions to be exact, since he took over as acting Commissioner of the IRS after Trump pushed out Billy Long, his own pick to lead the agency. If Trump “wins” his “lawsuit,” then the taxpayers will be on the hook for the money. Even as Americans are coughing up thousands of dollars per household for increased health insurance premiums and those “non-inflationary” tariffs, they’ll be asked to hand the president an eleven-figure check.
It’s breathtakingly corrupt, and so Bessent has figured out a way to distance himself from the looting of his agency: He’s blaming Pam Bondi.
“This is a Justice Department matter. They represent Treasury,” he sneered in response to questioning by Senator Ruben Gallego about the glaring conflict of interest.
So much for the unitary executive theory! Apparently the DOJ is running the show, and Treasury is just along for the ride. The IRS has no institutional interest or say in the litigation. If the Attorney General decides not to defend against a patently frivolous lawsuit, it’s got nothing to do with him.
“We act as paymaster,” Bessent insisted, conveniently dumping responsibility for the plunder of his agency in Bondi’s lap.
When hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin sued the Treasury over the leak of his tax documents — in timely fashion! — the DOJ mounted a robust defense. But if the Bondi decides to “lose” this lawsuit, that’s on her. Bessent is more like a cash register, really, or an AI chatbot being ordered to generate CSAM. It’s user error!
It’s a neat trick! Someone should hurry up and tell DHS Secretary Kristi Noem that she has to do whatever the DOJ lawyers tell her because they’re the ones really in charge. That would save those poor, harried AUSAs from having to explain to judges why ICE refuses to comply with court orders.
Whether it saves Bessent from being held responsible for the coming wealth transfer from American taxpayers to the president’s bloated pockets remains to be seen
Liz Dye produces the Law and Chaos Substack and podcast. You can subscribe by clicking the logo:
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