And There's More...
Today, May 19, 2026, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed a one-page order and the Justice Department quietly posted it online. That little document hands Donald Trump, his sons, the Trump Organization, his trusts, and his affiliated companies a permanent shield from IRS examination up to and including today. In writing. Signed by Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer.
Read that again. The President used his own Justice Department to end tax scrutiny of himself and his family.
The Setup
In January, Trump filed a frivolous lawsuit against the IRS for ten billion dollars in Trump v. Internal Revenue Service, No. 1:26-cv-20609, in the Southern District of Florida. A federal judge questioned whether a sitting president can really sue an agency he controls. Rather than have the matter heard before the judge on May 27th, Trump dropped the suit on Monday. In exchange, his Justice Department created a $1.776 billion dollar pot of taxpayer money called the Anti-Weaponization Fund. Blanche appoints every member of the commission that decides who gets paid. Trump can fire any of them. Names of recipients stay hidden from the public. There’s zero transparency or judicial oversight. I shared the details here.
None of this has anything to do with the plaintiffs’ tax returns. The “settlement” drags in a pile of fictional grievances Trump rants about at every rally. Being persecuted. Being impeached twice. Having the 2020 election stolen. Being found guilty of 34 felonies. Being found liable for sexual assault.
Two of those are real. The 34 felony convictions are real. The sexual assault liability is real. The rest is conspiracy theater dressed up as legal injury. None of it has been proven anywhere, by anyone, in any courtroom.
That inconvenience did not stop them. They went ahead and pulled $1.776 billion dollars out of your pocket. Money that could fund schools. Money that could build housing. Money that could fix roads. Money that could feed kids. Money that could cover healthcare for your family member or neighbor.
Money now headed to convicted criminals and Trump loyalists.
Is this what you want your tax dollars buying?
Did you vote for this?
The Tuesday Order
Today’s order says the United States “RELEASES, WAIVES, ACQUITS, and FOREVER DISCHARGES” the Trump plaintiffs and is “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED” from pursuing any claims, counterclaims, examinations, reviews, monetary relief, damages, or injunctive relief, “whether presently known or unknown,” against Trump, his family, his trusts, his parent, sister, and related companies, his affiliates, and his subsidiaries. The release expressly covers “tax returns filed before the Effective Date.”
A DOJ spokeswoman told CNBC the deal applies only to existing audits, not future ones. The text Blanche signed today says something broader (“whether presently known or unknown”… “have been or could have been asserted”…” could have been raised”… “that could be pending”). As a lawyer I can comfortably report that included language covers EVERYTHING. Full Stop. Every pre-settlement Trump return is now off-limits. Forever.
In May 2024, The New York Times and ProPublica reported that the IRS had spent years auditing Donald Trump over a double-dip tax maneuver on his Chicago skyscraper, where he wrote off the same massive losses twice. First in 2008, claiming the tower was worthless and reporting up to $651 million in losses, then again starting in 2010 after shifting ownership into a new partnership he also controlled, generating another $168 million in losses across the decade.
Tax experts calculated that losing the audit would cost Trump more than $100 million in back taxes and penalties, and that audit, pursued through his own first administration, is exactly the kind of pending matter the Blanche order just buried.
Treasury’s top lawyer, Brian Morrissey, resigned the moment this deal landed. He served seven months. A former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, a Trump appointee. He walked out rather than put his name on this.
The Law They Just Drove Through
Federal law, 26 U.S.C. Section 7217, makes it a crime for the President to direct the IRS to start or stop audits, directly or indirectly. Up to five years in prison. The House passed it 402 to 8. The Senate passed it nearly unanimously. The statute has one carve-out, the Attorney General. Trump’s former defense lawyer, sitting in that chair, signed the paper.
Legal watchdogs warned on May 14 that an indirect request from the President to terminate audits, even routed through the AG, still violates Section 7217. The administration did it anyway.
What You Do
You pay your taxes. The teacher pays hers. The roofer pays his. Trump just announced, in writing, that the law is for you and not for him.
Call your senators and representatives. Demand hearings. Demand Blanche under oath. Demand a vote to claw back the fund and close the AG carve-out.
Talk to three people who do not follow politics. Show them this story. Use plain words. Make them feel it.
Vote in every election in front of you.
Share this. Comment. Post it. The only thing that scares men like this is sunlight.
There is more coming. Your job is to stay paying attention when it arrives.
Mitch Jackson, Esq.
This is grotesque. 78 million voted for him and 109 million didn’t vote. That’s 187 million. That’s 70% of the electorate who signed off on what Blanche just did. Those voters are still making excuses and pointing the finger at democrats.
I agree, the worst is yet to come.
Is there any way to sue that this settlement is illegal?