Topline
An agreement signed on Tuesday expanded President Donald Trump’s controversial settlement with the IRS to include a clause that appears to bar the agency from investigating or prosecuting claims against the president, his family or his businesses.
Key Facts
The agreement was expanded in a short document signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday and posted on the Justice Department’s website.
The broad clause included at the end of the document says the government is “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED” from investigating or prosecuting claims against Trump, as well as his trusts, family members and “related companies.”
The initial settlement agreement announced by the Justice Department did not include any financial reimbursement for the president, instead setting up a $1.8 billion fund to pay out alleged victims of what the Trump administration calls the “weaponization” of the Justice Department during the last administration.
However, Trump has frequently complained about being audited by the IRS in years past, and based on past reports could see a financial gain from the IRS dropping its audits.
Blanche testified before a Senate subcommittee about the extraordinary settlement agreement on Tuesday, but was not asked about the added clause.
Neither the Justice Department nor the IRS returned requests for comment from Forbes on Tuesday afternoon.
Surprising Fact
The IRS has a policy of automatically auditing the president and vice president every year. However, a report issued by a Democratic-lead House Ways and Means Committee in 2022 found the agency’s audits of the president during his first term were significantly delayed. U.S. code law also prohibits the president and vice president from directing the IRS to “conduct or terminate” an audit against any taxpayer in the U.S. It’s unclear how these laws and rules will impact the settlement agreement.
Tangent
Unlike most modern presidential candidates, Trump refused to release his tax returns when he first ran for president in 2016. The status of his tax returns were a major source of criticism from his detractors for years, but remained under seal for years until multiple news outlets including the New York Times and ProPublica published reporting on his returns from 2016 and 2017. Some of these returns were leaked by Charles Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor who leaked the returns of multiple ultra-wealthy individuals and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024.
