Andrew Duehren

and Time was running out. President Donald Trump had sued the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for $US10 billion ($13.9 billion), and

The acting attorney general said the administration was preserving a broad order shielding the president and his family from audits, which critics suggest is unprecedented in scope.

Even as they rebelled against a $1.8 billion fund for President Trump’s allies, Republicans looked the other way as his administration granted him potentially lucrative tax protections.

James R. Gadwood, the president’s nominee for chief counsel at the Internal Revenue Service, works at Miller & Chevalier, which has represented Mr. Trump in tax matters.

The decision did not explicitly kill the deal that President Trump had worked out with his own government to receive what amounted to amnesty from investigations into tax returns that he, his family and their businesses have already filed.

Trump Live Updates: Judge Says Trump's IRS Settlement Was Self-Dealing

The decision also recommended disciplinary action against the lawyers involved, including the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche.

A federal judge ruled Monday that President Trump's lawsuit against the IRS was an improper exercise in self-dealing and barred him from claiming

A federal judge on Monday ruled that President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS was an improper exercise in self-dealing and barred him from claiming that the extraordinary tax protections

Ken Kies, who held two top jobs at the Treasury Department and the I.R.S., is leaving the government.