The devil is in the details of Trump’s shady IRS ‘settlement’
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/5/20/800042118/justice/the-devil-is-in-the-details-of-trumps-shady-irs-settlement/
The devil is in the details of Trump’s shady IRS ‘settlement’
The week started with a one-two punch of the Department of Justice’s so-called Settlement Agreement with President Donald Trump on Monday, followed by a little something extra on Tuesday—no big deal, just an afterthought, really.
It’s totally normal and not corrupt to promise the sitting president and everyone around him total immunity from all investigations or audits, or consequences for anything that happened before the settlement on May 18, 2026, right?
You’ve no doubt seen a bunch of coverage talking about how this was an addendum to the Settlement Agreement … but it isn’t really an addendum. Instead, it’s an order, and it was always going to be issued. And if we look back at the original agreement, we can see exactly how Trump and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche laid the groundwork for this massive giveaway.
First, let’s go back and look at the language of the agreement itself. Normal settlement agreements—or any type of contract, really—have a clause that specifies that the document represents the complete agreement between the parties.
Those types of clauses are necessary because they define the boundaries of the agreement, so one party can’t later say, “Well, we meant to include this in that contract and therefore it should be included,” or, “Well, I have this random scrap of paper here that says we actually agreed to some additional things, and can I just staple that scrap to this agreement?”
So, a normal clause would be something like “This Settlement Agreement constitutes the entire agreement of the Parties,” but that’s not what we have here. Instead, we have “This Settlement Agreement, including the accompanying orders by the Attorney General, constitutes the entire agreement of the Parties.”
The agreement required Blanche to issue an order within 30 days to establish funding and any other relevant requirements, rules, conditions, terms, and waivers, which shall be treated as incorporated herein.”
Related | Trump’s insurrectionist slush fund is worse than you think
But the only order that accompanied the agreement on May 18 was about relatively minor terms like the deadline for the Treasury to transfer $1.776 billion taxpayer dollars to Trump’s illegal slush fund and what expenses the fund will cover for whatever corrupt handpicked fivesome administers this thing.
Somehow, that May 18 order just didn’t get around to establishing any relevant waivers while dealing with the conditions and terms, which doesn’t make a lot of sense as you would have to believe that the parties didn’t know, on the 18th, that the U.S. government was going to give Trump vast immunity from consequences the very next day.
Additionally, a waiver isn’t just a little term or condition you work out later in a different agreement. There is already a waiver in the original settlement agreement, where Trump and fam agreed to waive their claims against the IRS and Trump’s incredibly fake Federal Tort Claims Act claim in exchange for the insurrectionist slush fund and an apology. There’s no mention at all of anything else the government has to give in return for that—nothing it is required to waive.
So the May 19 document seems to just be another order, even though it doesn’t say so, though Blanche kind of nods at it: “The Settlement Agreement directed the Attorney General to issue an order establishing funding and any other relevant requirements for the Fund.”
That’s why it, and the May 18 order, are only signed by Blanche. A normal addendum would require the agreement of both parties, and the original agreement even states that modifications must be made in writing by both parties.
Instead, we just got Blanche dashing off a single paragraph that, on behalf of the United States government, provided an entirely new waiver that says the IRS will never audit, investigate, penalize, or prosecute Trump and others for anything at all, known or unknown, for anything that happened prior to May 18, 2026.
So where Trump once exchanged giving up his lawsuit for nothing but an apology—the terms of the settlement agreement itself—now he gave up his lawsuit in exchange for a really really big something that somehow didn’t end up in the original agreement.
This doesn’t just provide Trump and the other plaintiffs with this unheard-of level of protection against literally any possible IRS actions before May 18, 2026. It goes much further.
That sweet forever freedom from prosecution no longer just applies to the plaintiffs in Trump’s sham lawsuit: Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization. Now, it applies to “Plaintiffs or related or affiliated individuals (including, without limitation, family or others filing jointly), or parties including trusts, parent, sister, or related companies, affiliates, and subsidiaries.”
Yeah, that’s a lot more people, and a lot more protection.
Related | DOJ smashes the piggy bank for Trump and his cronies
Yesterday’s order also says it applies to “any matters currently pending or that could be pending (including tax returns filed before the Effective Date) before Defendant or other agencies or departments.”
This looks a lot like the acting attorney general who just happens to be one of Trump’s personal lawyers has turned the “settlement” between the IRS and the named Trump plaintiffs into a complete and total waiver protecting a much larger group of people from actions by any government agency. Sure, the DOJ can’t normally just write up a little paragraph purporting to bind everyone in government from literally any investigation or audit or prosecution that would hurt anyone in Trumpworld as part of a settlement between one agency and named plaintiffs, but we’re so far beyond legality now that it doesn’t really matter.
Blanche and Trump clearly went to great lengths to make this little scam work and tried to make it airtight against pesky lawsuits by saying that only the parties can enforce or challenge the agreement. But two police officers who defended the Capitol from Trump’s treason enthusiasts are going to try to stop it, and have filed a lawsuit calling this exactly what it is: an illegal slush fund for insurrectionists.
There’s no way to know yet what kind of traction this lawsuit will have or whether the officers have standing to challenge the agreement, but someone has to try to head off arguably the most corrupt thing a U.S. president has ever done.
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