Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed a one-page order on May 19 that closes every existing IRS audit and inquiry into President Trump, his sons, the Trump Organization, and any “related or affiliated” trusts, parents, sisters, subsidiaries, or family members filing jointly. The order resolves a lawsuit Trump filed against the IRS in January over the leak of his tax returns to The New York Times and ProPublica. In place of damages, the Justice Department is standing up a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to pay claims from anyone the administration decides has been a victim of “lawfare.” Blanche appoints the board that decides those claims. The President can fire board members without cause.
The release language goes further than a normal settlement. According to the filed order, the United States is “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting” the plaintiffs on the covered matters, with the release extending to family members, joint filers, trusts, parent companies, sister companies, affiliates, and subsidiaries. NPR called the agreement “unprecedented.” CBS News reported that Trump and the other plaintiffs receive a formal apology from the government and no monetary payment, while the public fund is positioned as the cash piece. The IRS commitments cover tax returns filed before May 18, 2026. Going forward, the family still has to file and pay.
This is not a pardon. A pardon reaches federal criminal liability and nothing else. It cannot stop a civil audit, a regulatory exam, or a state action. It is also a public act, signed by the President and recorded as such. What Blanche signed is a contract, executed under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(i), which allows a plaintiff to dismiss a case without a judge’s approval. There is no judicial review of the terms. A legal commentary in JURIST this week argued the mechanism creates a third immunity track outside the constitutional ones: civil, regulatory, family-wide, and self-executed by the same executive branch that would otherwise be the one investigating.
The conflict of interest is on the page. Blanche was Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer before he was acting attorney general. He signed an order erasing tax inquiries into his former client. He will also pick the board that decides who gets a share of the $1.776 billion. There is no statute that authorizes a fund of this size to be created by settlement, and Congress did not appropriate the money for this purpose. The closest precedent for a unilateral DOJ-administered claims fund is the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, which Congress created by statute with detailed eligibility rules. This fund has none of that.
The accountability question is not whether Trump personally underpaid taxes. That is now legally unanswerable. The question is what the IRS is for if its examinations can be ended by the President’s former lawyer in a one-page order, and what the Justice Department is for if it can hand out nine-figure settlements to political allies without a vote. Both agencies exist because Congress decided ordinary Americans should not be at the mercy of whoever happens to control the executive branch. The order signed on May 19 says, in plain English, that the people at the top are exempt. The precedent does not expire when this administration does. It sits there waiting for the next one.
Sources: NPR, “The Justice Department gives Trump an unprecedented settlement”; NPR, “U.S. government to drop tax claims against Trump”; CBS News, “Trump settles $10 billion lawsuit against IRS”; Fox News, “DOJ bars IRS from auditing Trump’s prior tax returns”; JURIST commentary, “Forever Barred and Precluded”.