Update (1130ET): The DOJ announces that as a part of the settlement agreement in President Donald Trump v. the IRS, the Attorney General established “The Anti-Weaponization Fund” to provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.
“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “As part of this settlement, we are setting up a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”
“The use of government power to target individuals or entities for improper and unlawful political, personal, or ideological reasons should not be tolerated by any Administration,” said Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter.
Bloomberg reports that the fund will receive $1.776 billion and will come from the judgment fund, which is a perpetual appropriation allowing DOJ to settle and pay cases.
The fund will have the power to issue formal apologies and monetary relief owed to claimants.
The Fund will consist of a Commission of five members appointed by the Attorney General. One Member will be chosen in consultation with congressional leadership. The President can remove any member, but a replacement must be chosen the same way as the replaced member was selected.
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As Tom Ozimek detailed earlier via The Epoch Times, President Trump’s attorneys on Monday filed a court notice voluntarily dismissing his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS and the U.S. Treasury Department, in a case that accused the agencies of failing to prevent a former contractor from leaking Trump’s tax returns to the media.
No reason was stated in the May 18 motion, which asks the court to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning Trump and the other plaintiffs cannot bring the same claims again in the future. A court filing in April indicated that talks were underway to settle the case, with the parties stating at the time that discussions were taking place “productively to avoid protracted ligitation.”
Monday’s filing said the IRS and Treasury Department had neither filed an answer nor moved for summary judgment, allowing the plaintiffs to dismiss the action unilaterally without requiring court approval or government consent.
Trump, along with two of his sons and the Trump family business, sued the IRS and the Treasury Department in January, accusing both agencies of failing to take mandatory precautions to prevent former IRS contractor Charles “Chaz” Littlejohn from illegally obtaining access to their tax records and disclosing that information to The New York Times and ProPublica.
The lawsuit alleged that Littlejohn had “staff-like access” to confidential tax return information and exploited weaknesses in IRS safeguards to obtain and leak the records between 2019 and 2020.
Lawsuit DetailsThe lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, sought at least $10 billion in damages and accused the IRS and THE Treasury of violating federal privacy laws governing taxpayer information.
Trump brought the suit in his personal capacity, while Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization were also named as plaintiffs.
Littlejohn, who at the time was employed by defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, was accused of having improperly accessed and disclosed tax information related to Trump and affiliated entities, including business holdings.
The plaintiffs claimed Littlejohn’s actions caused “reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump, and the other plaintiffs’ public standing.”
The lawsuit argued that IRS and Treasury safeguards were so inadequate that the agency took roughly 3 years to detect the breach.
“Defendants had a duty to safeguard and protect Plaintiffs’ confidential tax returns and related tax return information from such unauthorized inspection and public disclosure,” the complaint alleged, pointing to the need for the agencies to have in place appropriate technical, employee screening, and monitoring systems to prevent Littlejohn’s actions.
“Defendants failed to take such mandatory precautions.”
Littlejohn pleaded guilty in October 2023 to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax return information.
Prosecutors said he used broad search parameters to conceal his activities, uploaded stolen data to a private website to avoid IRS monitoring systems, and stored records on personal devices before providing them to media outlets.
In January 2024, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes sentenced Littlejohn to five years in prison, the maximum sentence permitted under the statute. Reyes described the breach as the “biggest heist” in IRS history.
“It cannot be open season on our elected officials,” Reyes said, noting that Littlejohn purposefully sought his job at least in part to obtain and leak tax information.
Before Monday’s voluntary dismissal, the case had appeared to be moving toward a possible resolution in recent weeks.
In an April 17 filing, attorneys for Trump and the Justice Department jointly requested a 90-day pause in proceedings to allow settlement negotiations to continue.
The IRS and THE Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the dismissal filing.
Tyler Durden Mon, 05/18/2026 - 11:40Authored by Chris Summers via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez on May 17 said the United States is building a “fraudulent case” to justify economic war and eventual military intervention against the Caribbean island nation.
Cuban troops participate in a military parade in honor of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro at Revolution Square in Havana on Jan. 2, 2017. Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty ImagesHis comments were a direct response to a report by Axios, which cited classified U.S. intelligence reports saying Cuba had obtained more than 300 military drones and had discussed using them against the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, which is at the eastern end of the island. The Epoch Times is unable to verify the Axios report.
“Without any legitimate excuse, the #US government is building, day after day, a fraudulent case to justify a ruthless economic war against the Cuban people and eventual military aggression,” Rodriguez said in a post on X. “Specific media outlets are playing along, promoting slander and leaking insinuations from the U.S. government itself.”
The minister did not specifically mention the Axios report about military drones, and he did not formally deny that Cuba possessed such weapons, which have been used by both Russia and Iran, and Tehran’s proxies, in conflicts in recent years.
“Cuba does not threaten or desire war,” Rodriguez added. “It defends peace and is willing and preparing to confront external aggression in exercise of the right to legitimate self-defense recognized by the UN Charter.”
In a May 18 email to The Epoch Times, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said the U.S. president will always act “to protect Americans, our interests and our homeland from any threat.”
“President Trump ... has taken historic action to rid our backyard of uncontrolled migration, dangerous narco trafficking, organized crime, and hostile foreign military presence,” the department said.
“Cuba, a failed Communist state which has long hosted hostile foreign military, intelligence and terror groups, presents a significant threat to our national security that President Trump will not allow to devolve into a greater crisis to the safety and security of Americans.”
In a May 17 post on X, Monroe County Sheriff’s office, which covers the Florida Keys, said, “Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay has not been contacted by any federal or state authorities regarding news reports Sunday of any possible military action taken by Cuba against the U.S. military base in Cuba at Guantanamo Bay using drones.”
The post quoted Ramsay as saying he did not believe there was any reason to be concerned.
“I am confident I will be notified if anything does change and I will alert the public,” Ramsay added.
The Cuban ambassador to the United Nations, Ernesto Soberón, said in a May 17 post on X that the people of Cuba “stand ready to defend their territory, their sovereignty, and their independence.”
“Cuba would never initiate an attack on any country, let alone the United States,” Eva Golinger, an attorney and writer based in New York, said in a May 17 post on X. “They do, however, have the right to self defense under international law, as all countries do, if they are attacked.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has previously said Cuba persecutes and tortures political opponents, provides a safe haven for terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and constitutes an “extraordinary threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy.”
Last week, Cuba said it poses no threat to U.S. national security and that there are no legitimate grounds for it to remain on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe and other officials visited Cuba on May 14, at the invitation of the communist regime in Havana. At the time, the U.S. Embassy in Cuba referred The Epoch Times to the White House for comment, which in turn referred it to the CIA. The CIA didn’t respond to an email seeking comment on that meeting.
Fuel CrisisCuban Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy said on May 13 that the country has completely run out of diesel and heavy fuel oil, and its power grid has entered a critical state.
O Levy said Cuba had not received any oil imports since December, until Russia sent 100,000 tons (about 700,000 barrels) of crude last month.
Trump said on Truth Social last week that Cuba was asking for help and that the two countries were going to talk.
Newly erected holding tents for detained migrants at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Feb. 21, 2025. U.S. Navy/AFN Guantanamo Bay Public Affairs via ReutersThe regime in Cuba was founded in 1959 after rebels led by Fidel Castro ousted U.S.-backed leader Fulgencio Batista. Under Castro’s leadership, the regime moved toward Marxism-Leninism and consolidated one-party communist rule in the years that followed. Cuba was closely allied with the Soviet Union until the bloc’s collapse in the early 1990s.
Cuba was heavily reliant on Venezuelan oil, supplied by former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s socialist regime, but that supply was stopped after he was ousted in January and replaced by interim leader Delcy Rodríguez.
Mexico also stopped sending oil, under pressure from the United States.
A watch tower at Camp X-Ray, which was the first detention facility to hold what the U.S. government described as "enemy combatants," at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on June 27, 2013. Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesThe U.S. State Department said in a May 13 post on X that it “is publicly restating the United States’ generous offer to provide additional direct humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people.”
“The Cuban regime must decide whether to accept our offer or deny life-saving help for the Cuban people, who desperately need it,” the State Department said.
Tyler Durden Mon, 05/18/2026 - 11:20