Tony Soprano Called — He Wants His $1.776 Billion Shakedown Back

He sued himself. He settled with himself. He sent you the bill — $1.776 billion of it. Here's how they pulled it off.

I feel like I’m living in a season of The Sopranos.

It’s being announced today that the Department of Justice is setting up a $1.776 billion fund (they’re calling it the “Anti-Weaponization Fund”) to compensate supporters of Trump who contend they were mistreated by Democratic administrations. The announcement came as part of a settlement with President Trump of his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. And yes, that number — 1776 — is no accident. They picked it because they think you’ll see the digits and salute.

This is unbelievable. Picture Tony Soprano sitting in the back room at the Bing, declaring himself the victim of his own crew, and then telling Silvio to hand him the envelope. Except the envelope here is filled with your tax dollars, and the back room is the United States Department of Justice.

First, Trump’s Case Against The IRS Was Frivolous

Even if it wasn’t, his damages under 26 U.S.C. § 7431 are limited to $1,000 per unauthorized disclosure by the government. Not $10 billion. One thousand dollars.

But let’s back up a few steps.

The IRS didn’t disclose Trump’s tax returns. They were disclosed by Charles Littlejohn, who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a private government contractor. Littlejohn pleaded guilty in October 2023 and is serving five years in federal prison. He’s the leaker. He’s the one in a cell.

Under the Federal Tort Claims Act and decades of Supreme Court precedent, like Logue v. United States (1973), the federal government is not liable for the wrongful acts of independent contractors, only for acts of its own employees. When a contractor like Charles Littlejohn commits a criminal act on his own initiative, outside the scope of any authority the government gave him, that liability stops with him and his employer, not the taxpayers.

Now, in my legal opinion, the IRS didn’t do anything wrong here. On the facts as I read them, this lawsuit had no business being filed against the IRS in the first place.

Second, The Statute of Limitations Has Run

It’s two years under § 7431. Trump filed his case on January 29, 2026, more than five years after the disclosures became public in the New York Times and ProPublica in 2020. The Ninth Circuit has held that this two-year window is jurisdictional. Any honest defense lawyer files a motion to dismiss on day one. Any honest Justice Department does the same. Neither happened here.

Third, There Is No Case Or Controversy

Under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, federal courts can only hear genuine adversarial disputes between opposing parties. They cannot rule on friendly suits. They cannot rubber stamp a deal between two sides who secretly want the same outcome. The Supreme Court shut this down in Muskrat v. United States (1911). Again in United States v. Johnson (1943). And again in In re Murchison (1955), where the Court laid down the bedrock rule of American due process: No man can be a judge in his own case.

Apply that to what’s happening in Miami. Trump is the plaintiff. Trump appointed the Attorney General defending the IRS. Trump controls the Treasury that writes the check. Trump signs off on the settlement. One man. Two hats. Suing himself. Writing himself a check.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami saw exactly what this was. That’s why she set a hearing for May 27, 2026 and ordered both sides to explain how the parties were “truly antagonistic to each other.” Trump’s lawyers couldn’t answer that question without lying to a federal judge.

So they didn’t answer it. They settled instead.

And here’s the part that makes my blood pressure climb. In a footnote at the bottom of yesterday’s court filing, Trump’s lawyers argued that the motion to dismiss is “self-executing” meaning, in their view, the judge doesn’t even have to sign off. They tried to bypass Judge Williams entirely. That’s not a settlement. That’s a getaway.

Todd Blanche, Trump, and the DOJ decided: why wait and let the judge toss this out for nothing? Let’s just settle for $1.776 billion and call it a day.

Hell, it’s not their money. It’s yours.

Todd Blanche, by the way, is now the Acting Attorney General of the United States. The same Todd Blanche who, before joining the Justice Department, was Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney in the New York hush-money trial, the classified documents case, and the January 6 case. That’s the man now running the Department that just cut Trump a $1.776 billion settlement check.

You cannot make this up.

Fourth, No Third-Party Complaint For Equitable Indemnity and Apportionment?

And there’s one more thing I’d like the DOJ to explain to the American people.

When a defendant like the IRS is named in a case and didn’t do the wrongdoing, when a third party is actually responsible for the disclosure, the federal procedural device is called a third-party complaint under Rule 14, the federal equivalent of a cross-complaint. You implead the responsible party. Here that’s Charles Littlejohn and Booz Allen Hamilton, and your then seek equitable indemnity, apportionment, or contractual indemnification so the wrongdoer pays the judgment, the attorneys’ fees, and the costs. Not the taxpayers.

And here’s the kicker: the Booz Allen federal contract almost certainly contains an express indemnification clause. Standard federal IT contracts always do. The Treasury Department already canceled all 31 of Booz Allen’s contracts in January 2026 over this exact breach, meaning the government’s own official position is that Booz Allen is responsible.

So was a third-party complaint filed against Littlejohn or Booz Allen? Was the contractual indemnity clause invoked? Is the DOJ pursuing reimbursement from the party Treasury already publicly blamed?

Or is it simply going to keep the American taxpayer on the hook for the entire $1.776 billion?

It’s a rhetorical question. We all already know the answer.

Maybe it’s just me. But here’s how I picture the conversation going behind closed doors in the Oval Office between Trump and Blanche.

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This is a mob move unlike any in American history.

Make up a fake case against a defendant that isn’t legally responsible. File it more than five years late, long after the statute of limitations has expired. Make sure the lawyer for the defendant you’re suing, the IRS, is your former personal criminal defense attorney, now elevated to Acting Attorney General. Also make sure you have the power to fire that same lawyer any time you desire. And last but not least, make sure you’re the President of the United States, the person in charge of the Treasury, and the person who signs off on the payment. Then settle the case 9 days before a federal judge can throw it out.

Sit back. Watch the money flow to your political allies, the January 6 defendants you pardoned, and very possibly to business entities you control.

This is bad, folks. Very bad.

Everyone involved is part of the problem. Especially a silent Republican majority Congress that’s letting all this happen in broad daylight.

America will never forget. And to those of you who are part of this process, your day of reckoning in court will come.

Mitch Jackson, Esq.

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Related: BREAKING NEWS: This $1.7 Billion Trump Settlement Is the Most Corrupt Thing I Have Seen in Forty Years of Practicing Law

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