Bipartisan group of ex-federal judges seeks to challenge Trump’s $1.7bn ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

Lawsuit says settlement fund was ‘fraud on the court’ that would funnel taxpayer dollars to Trump allies

Dozens of former federal judges have joined the push to thwart Donald Trump’s creation of a $1.776bn “anti-weaponization fund” that would funnel taxpayer dollars to the president’s political allies.

The bipartisan group of 35 judges filed a lawsuit in the southern district of Florida on Wednesday seeking to reopen Trump’s legal case against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over the leaking of his tax information by a whistleblower who was later sentenced to five years in prison.