AG Bonta, leading a coalition of 23 attorneys general, filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to carefully scrutinize the parties’ conduct and purported “settlement” agreement in Trump v. IRS. In January 2026, President Trump, his family, and his business organization filed suit against the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service asserting claims related to the disclosure of President Trump’s tax return information by a government contractor. In the brief, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that the lawsuit, and subsequent settlement, are nothing more than a collusive fraud engineered to violate the constitutional limits on presidential authority under the veneer of a settlement, all at the expense of American taxpayers. 

“At a time when millions of families are struggling to afford the cost of food and gas, President Trump’s blatantly corrupt lawsuit and astonishing settlement with his own Department of Justice amounts to nothing more than a taxpayer-funded political patronage program. We cannot become desensitized to the self-dealing and rank partisanship by this Administration. We cannot standby and sanction the President Trump’s latest boondoggle. We urge the Court to take a closer look.” -AG Bonta