Appeals court leaves sanctions in place in Trump IRS case

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday declined to pause sanctions imposed on President Donald Trump and his lawyers in a dispute over his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, leaving the restrictions in force while the appeal continues. The panel said the appellants had not shown a strong likelihood of succeeding in their challenge to the sanctions. It also concluded that a restriction on referring to the disputed agreement in official proceedings was sufficiently limited not to violate free-speech protections. The ruling does not resolve the underlying appeal. The sanctions were imposed by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams after Trump and his lawyers withdrew a lawsuit seeking $10 billion over the leak of his tax records. The case ended in May with an agreement between Trump’s lawyers and federal officials. The reported terms included protections from certain tax audits and a proposed fund of roughly $1.8 billion for people claiming government mistreatment. The fund was later abandoned, while the audit-protection arrangement remained a point of dispute.