Back in Trump’s first term, a contractor at the IRS leaked his tax returns to the press. Trump has said ever since that the leak damaged him. In January this year he sued the IRS over it — as a private citizen — and asked for $10 billion.
When you sue a federal agency, the lawyer who defends the government is the Department of Justice. Trump runs the government. So Trump was on both sides of his own lawsuit: the man suing, and the man who decides how hard the government fights back.
The career people at the IRS did their jobs anyway. According to the judge’s ruling, they prepared a 25-page plan for defending the case — the kind of lawsuit the government normally wins. Nobody ever used it.
In May, Trump suddenly dropped his own lawsuit — “with prejudice,” which means he can never bring it again. Nobody abandons a $10 billion claim they believe in. The next day, everyone found out why. A settlement appeared. The government agreed to create a $1.776 billion fund to pay people who say the government treated them unfairly — mostly Trump allies, January 6 defendants among them. And the IRS agreed it would never pursue tax claims against Trump, his two oldest sons, or the family companies. Not now, not ever.
Put it together and it’s simple. Trump sued the government. The government he runs chose not to fight. And the “settlement” funneled $1.776 billion of taxpayer money toward his friends and made his family permanently untouchable on taxes. The deal was signed by Todd Blanche — Trump’s former personal criminal defense lawyer, now his acting Attorney General.
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