Podcaster Joe Rogan has mocked the Department of Justice for forever excusing President Donald Trump and his family from IRS audits on past tax returns.
“That is so crazy,” the podcaster said on an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience featuring comedian Tom Segura released Monday.
Rogan was reacting to part of the settlement reached through the DOJ for a $10 billion lawsuit that Trump, his children and the luxury real estate company, the Trump Organization, filed against the IRS in January. The lawsuit centered around a leak of the president’s tax records to news outlets during his first term.
The DOJ promised that the federal government would not investigate potential claims against Trump, his family or his companies over unpaid taxes, according to a one-page document signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and dated May 19.
Rogan likened the situation to someone wrongfully accused of killing somebody being immune from any future murder charges.
“Imagine somebody accused you of murder. And it turns out you weren’t guilty of that murder, and then you sue them, and you go, ‘You can never prosecute me for murder again.’
“And then you just go straight Uday Hussein,” the podcaster said, referring to the eldest son of the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Uday was accused of being “even more cruel and ruthless” than his father, according to a 2010 article from History.com. He, along with Hussein’s other son, Qusay, was killed by the U.S. Army in 2003.
Rogan endorsed Trump in the 2024 election and has been seen being friendly to the president, including hugging him at a UFC fight shortly after his victory that November.
But the podcast host also hasn’t been afraid to break with Trump on several issues, including his sweeping immigration crackdown, the administration’shandling of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the war against Iran that he launched at the end of February.
“It just seems so insane based on what he ran on,” Rogan said of the Iran war in a discussion with independent journalist Michael Shellenberger on his show in March. “I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? He ran on ‘No more wars, end these stupid, senseless wars.’”
The one-page document that Rogan criticized Monday stated that the IRS is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing “examinations” into Trump and “related or affiliated individuals,” including his family, trusts and “related companies, affiliates and subsidiaries.”
The agreement applies to “tax returns filed before the effective date” of last week’s settlement.
“There would be little point in settling several significant claims if either party could simply turn around and seek to initiate more adverse claims that could have been pursued previously,” Justice Department spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre previously told The Independent. “This is only with respect to existing audits, not future.”
Also included in the settlement is what critics call Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion “slush fund” — a reserve that could compensate the president’s allies who believe they were unfairly prosecuted.
One major concern about the fund is that it can be used to reward pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and attacked police officers.
