‘Shameless venality’: how a flurry of lawsuits has thwarted Trump’s self-enrichment schemes

详细摘要

Courts have issued stinging rebukes to president’s ‘blatant’ financial ploys as pro-democracy groups defend ‘government of laws, not of men’ pillarDonald Trump’s legal and…

Courts have issued stinging rebukes to president’s ‘blatant’ financial ploys as pro-democracy groups defend ‘government of laws, not of men’ pillar

Donald Trump’s legal and political ploys to increase his wealth and boost Republican electoral prospects have fueled lawsuits by non-partisan groups, prompting federal judges to issue stinging rejections to some of the president’s schemes.

Several lawsuits were filed in 2026 against Trump’s schemes to benefit his bottom line by reducing potential tax liabilities, boosting his Truth Social platform financially by offering big investors early access to his posts, and helping Republicans by using federal funds to pay for highly partisan ads touting Trump’s record in the run-up to the midterm elections, in which Republicans suffered a heavy defeat.

The major lawsuits against Trump’s financial ploys have been the handiwork of several nonpartisan groups including Democracy Defenders Fund and the Campaign Legal Center.

In response, judges in Florida and New York used strong language to condemn and help nullify some of Trump’s financial stratagems. Florida judge Kathleen Williams castigated a Trump scheme backed by the justice department to settle a $10bn lawsuit he filed against the Internal Revenue Service over an old leak of his tax information to the New York Times.

Williams ruled that the Trump backed deal to set up a $1.8bn slush fund to pay alleged victims of political persecutions under Joe Biden and giving him immunity from IRS audits before May 2026 was “premised on deception” and a “fraud against the court”.

In a separate legal blow to Trump in the closing weeks of the campaign, the president was rebuked by a federal judge in New York, for channeling $20m of public funds to run ads touting his administration’s achievements. The ads were widely attacked as campaign ads and propaganda.

Former judges and ex-DoJ lawyers say that he Trump moves to boost his bottom line and political drives with backing from DoJ lawyers exemplify…

文章开头，摘自The Guardian Business。如需阅读全文，请前往媒体网站。