Nearly three dozen retired federal judges on Wednesday asked a U.S. district court judge to reopen the lawsuit President Donald Trump filed last year against the Internal Revenue Service, which netted him about $1.8 billion out of court, noting it “raises profound questions.”

They wrote, “The purported ‘settlement’ that the parties never placed before this Court raises profound questions about the parties’ candor toward the Court and manipulation of the judicial system, which threatens to undermine confidence in the administration of justice.”

Trump sued the IRS for $10 billion over the unlawful release of his tax returns by a federal contractor during his first term, demanding his own administration pay him out and settling for approximately $1.8 billion that critics are calling a “slush fund” before the complaint was litigated.

Appointed by presidents of both parties, the 35 ex-judges noted in their filing in a federal court in Florida that Trump dropped the lawsuit in exchange for the $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to pay his allies who claim to have been targeted by the Department of Justice.

The retired jurists are asking U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, who presided over the matter, to reverse her decision last week of dismissing the lawsuit, which was brought against the IRS by the president, his son Eric Trump and the Trump Organization.

They argue the suit wasn’t legally sound as Trump was both the plaintiff as a private person and the defendant in his capacity as head of the executive branch, which oversees the IRS. The former judges noted this dynamic was potentially “itself a fraud on the court.”

Trump dismissed the case ahead of litigating in court that he had no conflict of interest.

The former judges argue this settlement “was not, and never will be, legally justified,” as it requires the actual “existence of a legitimate litigation and not, as here, one that is collusive, feigned, or fraudulent.” They also asked Williams to look into whether she “was deceived.”

Williams was appointed by former President Barack Obama and was set to conclude whether she had the authority to oversee the lawsuit when Trump decided not to pursue it. She agreed to formally close the case, but noted that the fundamental matter was unresolved.

She explained at the time that the Justice Department had not “filed any documents ensuring that settlement was appropriate” and that there was still “an outstanding question as to whether an actual case or controversy existed,” a stance the former jurists are echoing.

Trump’s attorneys said in a court filing that their deal with the IRS requires “no judicial analysis.” The MAGA leader himself claimed on his Truth Social platform that the money will help people “badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration.”

The ex-judges noted in their filing that Trump was paid out before litigation even transpired.

They wrote, “As long as the court appropriately exercises its authority to reopen the case, it would preserve the status quo and ensure that the ‘settlement’ provisions cannot be carried out while the court completes the inquiry that was derailed by the voluntary dismissal.”

Read the full complaint here.

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