The Justice Department slipped a remarkable restriction into a $1.776 billion settlement agreement on Tuesday, permanently blocking the Internal Revenue Service from auditing Donald Trump, his family, his businesses, and related entities for any tax returns filed before the deal was finalized.
The addendum, signed by acting attorney general Todd Blanche, uses sweeping language to declare the government "forever barred" and "precluded" from examining those returns. The provision was posted to the Justice Department website Tuesday morning, just one day after the broader compensation fund was announced.
The amendment intensified criticism of the underlying settlement, which emerged from Trump's decision to drop a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS and other claims against the federal government in exchange for creating the fund. The IRS had recommended fighting the lawsuit, according to reporting, yet officials chose to settle anyway, raising fresh questions about potential political interference.
The compensation fund itself operates with minimal oversight. Five people appointed by the president, all removable at his discretion, will administer it. The fund has no obligation to publicly disclose who receives money or why.
Blanche faced intense pushback during a Senate hearing Tuesday afternoon. Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen called the arrangement "an outrageous, unprecedented slush fund." When pressed about whether people convicted of assaulting police officers on January 6 could tap the fund, Blanche stated there were no eligibility restrictions on applicants. However, he claimed neither Trump nor his sons would receive compensation, a point that remains unclear in the actual agreement text.
The agreement requires the five-person commission to submit quarterly confidential reports to the attorney general detailing payouts and recipients. Yet Blanche told senators those details would become public through the reporting process and Freedom of Information Act requests, contradicting the confidentiality language written into the settlement itself.
Author James Rodriguez: "This tax return exemption buried in the fine print shows how aggressively this settlement shields the president from scrutiny while claiming transparency."
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