DOJ’s settlement with Trump bans IRS from taking action against him over old tax returns
The Internal Revenue Service is permanently barred from pursuing claims against President Trump or his company based on prior tax returns, part of a controversial settlement agreement that the Justice Department struck to resolve a lawsuit brought by Mr. Trump.
In a one-page document signed by Attorney General Todd Blanche and dated Tuesday, the Justice Department said the defendants in the president’s lawsuit — the IRS and the Treasury Department — are “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED” from “prosecuting or pursuing, any and all claims” that arise out of tax returns filed before the settlement took effect Monday.
The deal also insulates Mr. Trump from claims related to “Lawfare and/or Weaponization.”
It covers all of the plaintiffs in the president’s lawsuit against the IRS, including Mr. Trump, the Trump Organization and the president’s sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
Mr. Trump has stated publicly that he faced frequent IRS audits before running for president, saying in early 2016: “Every year they audit me, audit me, audit me.” His tax returns have long been a subject of scrutiny by Democrats, in part because Mr. Trump declined to voluntarily release them in 2016, unlike most major presidential candidates.
A Justice Department spokesperson said the deal does not apply to future tax audits.
“As is customary in settlements, both sides have executed waivers of a variety of claims that were or could have been brought,” the spokesperson told CBS News. “There would be little point in settling several significant claims if either party could simply turn around and seek to initiative more adverse claims that could have been pursued previously.”
The newly released document expands the known scope of Monday’s settlement deal, which the government reached this week in order to resolve a $10 billion lawsuit brought by the president earlier this year over a leak of his tax returns. As part of the deal, the Justice Department agreed to set up a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that can offer monetary payments to people who allege they were victims of government “lawfare.”
Mr. Trump will also receive a formal apology from the government, but no monetary payment.
The settlement has drawn intense scrutiny, both because it is essentially a deal between the president and his own government, and because it remains unclear who will financially benefit from the Anti-Weaponization Fund — or whether Trump allies will be paid. The progressive nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington called the settlement “the most brazen act of self-dealing in the history of the presidency.”
It’s possible that former Trump administration figures who have faced federal investigations will apply for relief. Some Jan. 6 riot defendants whom Mr. Trump pardoned en masse last year might seek relief. A Texas flower shop owner who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge related to the Capitol riot told CBS News that “all J6ers will apply for restitution.”
Blanche and other Justice Department officials have defended the deal. The department said in a statement Monday that “there are no partisan requirements to file a claim.” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward pointed to the fact that settlement decisions will be made by a panel of five people appointed by the attorney general.
“I, frankly, think that we should be ecstatic about the idea that we’re going to inject more accountability into the process, as opposed to having just one person sign off on settlements,” Woodward said Tuesday during an unrelated news conference.
A spokesperson for the Trump legal team said in a statement that Mr. Trump “is entering into this settlement squarely for the benefit of the American people, and he will continue his fight to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable.”
The president’s lawsuit accused the IRS of failing to protect his tax returns by allowing a government contractor to leak the documents to news outlets in 2020. The contractor, Charles Littlejohn, was sentenced to prison time in 2024 for sharing Mr. Trump’s tax returns with The New York Times. Prosecutors also accused Littlejohn of sending tax information to investigative news outlet ProPublica, which has reported on Mr. Trump and other billionaires’ tax records.
