Trump’s Tax Troubles Vanish: New Settlement Shields Him from IRS Audits
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump just dodged a major bullet with the IRS, thanks to a newly minted settlement that his administration has slipped into the legal playbook.
Alongside a staggering $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” crafted by the Justice Department, a fresh document uploaded Tuesday effectively puts an end to any tax enforcement that might have been looming over the president's head.
The document boldly states that the government is “FOREVER BARRED” from any prosecution or “examinations or similar or related reviews” concerning Trump, his family, or any associated businesses regarding tax returns filed prior to this week.
Translation? If the IRS was in the midst of an audit on Trump, it’s now officially dead in the water.
Settlement talks kicked off earlier this year after Trump filed a lawsuit in January as a private citizen, seeking $10 billion in damages over the 2020 leak of his private tax information.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department pointed to the settlement agreement released Monday, which allows the attorney general 30 days to tweak the deal with “other relevant requirements, rules, conditions, terms, and waivers.”
These additional terms, first reported by Politico, were kept under wraps until acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning. His signature graces the new document dated May 19.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) expressed his discontent earlier Tuesday, stating he was “not a big fan” of the new settlement fund. When pressed about the expansion to include Trump’s taxes, Thune didn’t mince words.
“There are and will continue to be a lot of questions around that that the administration is going to have to answer,” he remarked.
The White House has deflected all inquiries to the Justice Department.
The Anti-Weaponization Fund is designed as compensation for individuals allegedly harmed by “lawfare” waged against them for political motives by the Biden administration. When asked if this fund would extend to those convicted of assaulting police during the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, Blanche didn’t outright deny it.
“Anybody can apply,” he stated.
Traditionally, the IRS conducts automatic audits of the president and vice president’s taxes annually. During Trump’s first term, Democrats leveraged committee oversight powers to pry into his tax information, revealing that an audit had not been completed during his initial years in office. Trump had repeatedly claimed he couldn’t release his tax returns due to an ongoing audit, a claim that raised eyebrows.
Democrats are fuming over this settlement, branding it a political “slush fund” for Trump to reward his allies while also taking issue with the new IRS terms.
“This is not just another heinously corrupt act by the most corrupt administration in history; it’s a blatant violation of laws prohibiting executive branch interference in IRS audits,” declared Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in a statement. “Democrats will fight every aspect of this self-serving settlement, but regardless of how those efforts pan out, future administrations and IRS leadership should treat this illegal directive as completely invalid.”
