Senate Republicans demurred last week at the chance to rein in President Donald Trump’s $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, despite indications that the slush fund is not as dead as the Justice Department has claimed. Even more troubling, the GOP opted not to touch the less blatantly corrupt part of Trump’s settlement with himself. Under the terms of an addendum from acting attorney general Todd Blanche, the Internal Revenue Service is “forever barred and precluded” from auditing the president, his companies, or the sons that joined him in attempting to shakedown the agency for $10 billion in a lawsuit against the government he leads.
Importantly, the one-page ban includes any ongoing audits that may have already begun. It also specifically applies to all tax returns filed before the settlement was put in place last month. This would cover those filed in April, which cover Trump’s first year back in office.
And as even a cursory review of the Trump family’s alleged ongoing profiteering shows, any number of fraudulent claims could potentially slip through the cracks if the IRS is forbidden from reviewing any of those filings.
This is a preview of a column by Hayes Brown. Read the full column here.
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