President Donald Trump is dropping his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, according to court documents, a signal that the administration is preparing to go forward with a plan to set up a $1.8 billion fund that would compensate those who believe they were subject to unfair investigations under previous administrations.
Monday morning’s court filing did not provide any details of a settlement. Rather, it noted that the case was still in a very preliminary phase. Trump’s lawyers said that meant that he did not need to ask for permission to dismiss the case nor did the IRS need to consent to the dismissal. The filing said he was dismissing with prejudice, which would foreclose his ability to try to bring the case again.
In January, Trump, along with his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, sued the IRS and Treasury Department for at least $10 billion. The lawsuit accuses the IRS of an unauthorized leak of Trump’s tax returns from his first presidency.
Trump’s lawsuit alleges that the IRS failed to protect confidential tax information and the tax information of the Trump Organization. Charles Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor, was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking Trump’s tax records, along with the records of thousands of others.
