The agreement between President Trump and the government he leads just got a major add-on: it shuts down all ongoing IRS audits of the president, his companies, and sons Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, according to a Justice Department filing. The document, signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, says the government will be "FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED" from pursuing specified claims tied to past tax returns—raising questions about how that squares with laws that prohibit presidents and agency heads from meddling in audits, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The new provision builds on a settlement in Trump's lawsuit against the IRS unveiled Monday, in which the government created a $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" for people claiming they were targeted by federal agencies; Trump allies could potentially tap it, though Blanche told senators Tuesday that Trump himself won't. Trump has long complained about being under IRS scrutiny, but the status of his audits has largely remained opaque, the Journal notes. The IRS is supposed to automatically review presidents' and vice presidents' returns each year, and Trump, unlike recent predecessors, has not voluntarily released his returns.
The Justice Department said the settlement only applies to existing audits and doesn't rule out future ones. Daniel Werfel, who served as IRS Commissioner during the Biden administration, tells the AP this is the first time he's heard of the agency agreeing "to permanently forgo examination of previously filed tax returns for a specific person or business." Werfel says the settlement means Trump and his sons are operating under different tax rules than other Americans. "Whether you are the president or Joe the Plumber, people expect the same tax rules and enforcement framework to apply to everybody," he says.
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