President Donald Trump may have shelved plans for his $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund — part of a broader settlement resolving his unprecedented $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service — but one controversial element remains intact, according to a new report.
Last week, a federal judge in the capital temporarily blocked the Trump administration from “taking any further action pursuant to the creation or operation of the Anti-Weaponization Fund,” designed to pay out victims of alleged government wrongdoing.
On Monday, the Department of Justice said it would comply with the court order and halt the creation of the $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded cache, which critics have derided as a no-strings-attached “slush fund” for Trump’s allies.
However, a separate provision in the settlement is poised to proceed: one granting Trump and his family broad tax amnesty, The Daily Beast reported.
A representative for the president’s legal team told the outlet that an agreement barring Trump from tax audits is moving forward.
The spokesperson criticized the IRS, claiming the agency “wrongly allowed a rogue, politically-motivated employee to leak private and confidential information about President Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization to the New York Times, ProPublica and other left-wing news outlets, which was then illegally released to millions of people.”
“President Trump continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable,” they added.
When reached for comment, a White House spokesperson referred The Independent to the president’s personal attorneys, who did not immediately respond.
Filed in January, the president’s suit alleged the IRS failed to prevent the leak of his tax returns to the media and sought damages tied to federal investigations into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia, as well as the FBI’s 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago.
Under the terms of the settlement announced last month, the federal government planned to establish a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund and agreed that the IRS will be “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing claims against Trump, his family or his businesses.
The settlement, which applies only to existing audits and not future ones, shields the president from a potentially damaging ruling that could have cost him more than $100 million, according to The New York Times, which was one of several outlets to obtain Trump’s leaked tax return data.
The announcement of the tax amnesty provision drew swift criticism from Democrats, who labeled it an example of blatant corruption.
“The President is now exempt from our tax laws while everyone else has to obey them. Got it,” Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy wrote on X. “It’s just mind blowing that is what’s happening in America.”
Some Republicans also raised concerns over the settlement deal, particularly over its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he is “not a big fan.”
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization previously told The Independent that the deal is necessary to right past wrongs.
“This settlement seeks to provide meaningful accountability for the IRS’s prolonged and systemic failure to safeguard sensitive taxpayer data, which resulted in the unlawful disclosure of confidential tax return information relating to more than 500 Trump Organization-affiliated entities, as well as the personal tax returns of President Donald J. Trump, Eric Trump, and Donald Trump Jr.,” the spokesperson said.
