{"id":595617,"date":"2026-05-21T05:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T05:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/595617\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T05:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T05:12:08","slug":"how-trumps-irs-settlement-could-block-tax-audits-of-him-his-family-and-their-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/595617\/","title":{"rendered":"How Trump’s IRS settlement could block tax audits of him, his family and their businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just as the US government has never been sued by its president, it has never settled a lawsuit involving the head of the executive branch.<\/p>\n

Before the case was settled, a federal court set a 20 May deadline for both sides to address whether a legitimate legal dispute existed, given that Trump oversees the IRS.<\/p>\n

In exchange for the president dropping his case, the justice department agreed to establish a $1.776bn “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that would pay claims from “those who suffered under weaponisation and lawfare”. <\/p>\n

Most Democrats have called it a “slush fund” where Trump can hand out money to allies as well as rioters who breached the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. <\/p>\n

Some Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, have expressed scepticism as well<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Already, at least one claim has been filed. <\/p>\n

Michael R Caputo, was a Trump campaign adviser and later served in the first Trump administration, is seeking $2.7m, saying in a letter posted on X that “the machinery of government was clearly weaponized against my family” during the investigation into possible Russian involvement in the 2016 election.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the BBC, he said his family was “profoundly grateful” that Trump “will not let this political weaponization stand.”<\/p>\n

At the same time, resistance is also already mounting.<\/p>\n

Two police officers who were at the capitol on 6 January 2021 filed a lawsuit on Wednesday arguing the fund is illegal because “no statute authorizes its creation, the settlement on which it is premised is a corrupt sham, and its design violates the Constitution and federal law”. <\/p>\n

They also argued it could endanger their safety by providing funds to rioters who regularly threaten their lives and could lead to the funding of paramilitaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just as the US government has never been sued by its president, it has never settled a lawsuit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-595617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}