DOJ Sued Over Trump Tax-Audit Immunity Deal

Groups challenging Donald Trump’s IRS deal expanded their lawsuit Thursday to target the tax-audit immunity deal involving the president and some of his family members.

The amended complaint adds to earlier legal action from the same plaintiffs, who wanted to block the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that emerged as part of Trump’s settlement with the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department. The plaintiffs, including former federal prosecutor Andrew Floyd, want the DOJ to “permanently set aside the creation and operation of the lawless Fund and to set aside the corrupt Immunity Order.”

After the Senate postponed a vote on Blanche’s confirmation over members’ concerns about the fund, the acting attorney general on Sunday issued a written rescission order to win over key Republican holdouts. While Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn said they were satisfiedwith the statement, other Republicans like Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski say they are still on the fence.

But Blanche’s statement that the fund “is” not currently “operative” constituted “present-tense wordsmithing” that does not guarantee the fund will not proceed, the filing argues — saying the unsigned document “carries no more weight than a press release.” Blanche also reiterates that the immunity deal “applies by its terms only retroactively” for previously filed tax returns, but does not formally rescind it in his statement.

The DOJ established the “anti-weaponization” fund on May 18 to provide legal remedy for those who claim to have been unfairly targeted by former President Joe Biden’s administration. An addendum to the original order released on May 19 barred the government from pursuing tax claims against Trump, his sons Donald Jr. and Eric Trump and certain business entities including the Trump Organization.

Blanche’s Sunday night statement only addressed the creation of the fund itself, not the controversial tax-audit shield for the president and his affiliates.

“Under the Immunity Order, career IRS employees will be forced to terminate ongoing audits of the President and his businesses, giving the President a lucrative and unconstitutional emolument,” the plaintiffs argued in the lawsuit. “That would be unprecedented under any circumstance; it is all the more remarkable considering that the President profited an eye-popping $2.2 billion after returning to the White House.”

The Trump administration on July 31 appealed U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams’ ruling that the fund constituted federal collusion, though her decision did not block its existence.

“This action was never about a party seeking judicial resolution of a legal issue or a factual dispute,” Williams, a Barack Obama appointee, wrote. She also ordered sanctions against the private attorneys involved, referring one of them to the state bar for potential disciplinary action.

While Cornyn and Tillis voted to advance the acting attorney general on Tuesday, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) voted against Blanche’s nomination, citing an “increasingly political” Justice Department.

“Mr. Blanche approved an order to shield the President, his sons, and the family business from IRS audits, protections unavailable to other American taxpayers,” Collins wrote Tuesday on X.