Author: Max Profit

President Donald Trump has settled with his own Justice Department in maybe the most bizarre legal case in US history.

As experts explained it to the presiding judge, “A sitting president seeks monetary damages for alleged harm to his personal interests from an executive agency that he controls.”

But the $10 billion lawsuit never went before the judge because two days before the deadline to start the case, the plaintiffs (the Trump organization) settled with the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). 

Now, Trump and his sons will receive a formal apology from the IRS for leaking Trump’s tax returns just before the election, and the IRS will create a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that can be paid out to other victims of unfair political investigation.

So Trump sued himself, settled with himself, and will now pay himself?

Well, no, he can’t just pay himself. Instead, this tax-funded fund (fun!) is to provide a “systematic process to hear and redress claims of those who suffered under weaponisation and lawfare.”

Oh, lawfare, like warfare. I see what you did there.

As Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche explains, “The machinery of government should never be weaponised against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again.”

Tax Return To Sender

But this settlement isn’t the end of it. The Justice Department’s press release was quietly amended a day later to include a hyperlink to additional terms of the agreement.

According to CNN, these bonus terms read, “The federal government is “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED” from prosecuting or pursuing “claims” or “examinations” arising from matters pending before the IRS, including “tax returns” filed by Trump before the agreement was reached. The language applies not just to Trump, but to his family, trusts, companies and other affiliates.”

Democrats have filed a motion to block the settlement and say this is just a way for Trump to give money to his allies and ensure “his family, and his companies’ taxes are permanently off limits,” said Democrat Richard Neal in a Tweet.

While we don’t yet know how the fund will be spent, we also don’t know if the lawsuit had any grounds or not because it never went to trial. The allegation was that the IRS didn’t do enough to stop former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn from leaking Trump’s taxes (he’s now in prison, btw. Not Trump, the leaker).

So now I guess we’ll never know if that’s true or if the damage was worth $10 billion because the trial never happened and everyone just agreed it was worth $1.8 billion instead.

No doubt this story isn’t over, and the Anti-Weaponization Fund has a lot of lawfare still to come.