President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, April 16, 2026, in Washington (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta).
Just short of a month after she slapped sanctions on Donald Trump’s lawyers for filing a “non-adversarial, collusive” lawsuit against his IRS, a federal judge has rejected the president’s “expedited” motion for a stay of her scathing ruling.
“Upon review of the Motion, the record, and applicable law, the Court finds that Plaintiffs have not shown good cause for an expedited ruling under Southern District of Florida Local Rule 7.1,” U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams wrote Wednesday, evidently not seeing the emergency that Trump’s legal team claimed was present.
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The brief order from the Barack Obama-appointed jurist in the Southern District of Florida leaves in place — pending appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — a referral of Trump attorney Alejandro Brito to the Florida Bar and monetary sanctions in the form of “reimbursement” for amici curiae or friends of the court she granted leave to enter the case.
Those amici included 35 former federal judges, as well as ex-IRS and Treasury officials, who advanced arguments that the Trump DOJ did not before Trump the individual moved to voluntarily dismiss the action. The judge saw the sudden dismissal as a way for Trump to “manipulate the judicial process” and improperly force the IRS into a $1.776 billion “settlement” with “no viable basis in law or fact,” while opening the door for Trump supporters to seek payouts from a so-called “anti-Weaponization Fund.”
In essence, Trump sued himself and ended up ordered to pay an “appropriate” amount in legal fees to the nonparties who showed up to stop him.
After the former judges sought $4,610.83 and ex-IRS officials asked for $39,000 in attorneys’ fees, Trump lawyers claimed Williams issued a “wrongful invitation [for them] to seek fees” and should swiftly stay the sanctions order.
The judge has now denied the “expedited” stay request.
“Plaintiffs’ request for an expedited ruling is DENIED,” she added, setting a deadline of Aug. 14 for court-appointed amici to provide a response to the “multiple issues” raised in Trump’s motion.
The six lawyers whom Williams earlier appointed as amici to argue whether the court had jurisdiction in the matter separately agreed on Tuesday that Trump’s team had “not established that they are entitled to a speedier resolution.”
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“They cannot reasonably contend that giving amici the default two weeks to respond to their motion would inflict irreparable harm when they waited nearly three weeks to file themselves,” the court-appointed amici said.
One of those amici, John Gleeson, recently submitted an affidavit supporting James Comey’s defense, saying “there is literally no support for the central allegation” in the ex-FBI director’s “8647” seashells prosecution.
On July 13, Williams torched the president’s lawsuit, writing that it was “risible to suggest that there was ever adverseness between the Parties,” and that the complaint was plainly brought for an “improper purpose.”
The post ‘Have not shown good cause’: Judge refuses to halt scathing ruling that referred Trump lawyer to Florida Bar, put president on hook for legal fees as a sanction first appeared on Law & Crime.
