In a shocking and unprecedented move, the Justice Department issued a memo Tuesday saying the IRS is “forever barred” from investigating past tax returns of President Trump, his family, company and “related companies.” It came just a day after the department announced the creation of a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund to “compensate” people prosecuted for supposedly political reasons by the Biden and Obama administrations — a move expected to benefit January 6 insurrectionists, other Trump allies and even Trump himself. It’s all part of an agreement between the Department of Justice and President Trump’s personal attorneys in exchange for Trump dropping a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over leaked tax returns. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — President Trump’s former personal attorney — will appoint the commission overseeing the Justice Department’s new fund. “This is dictatorship in action,” says reporter David Cay Johnston. He calls the “anti-weaponization” fund “a slush fund to pay a criminal enforcement arm, a violent arm of Trump supporters to intimidate people” and says the order to not investigate the Trump family’s dealings “screams that Donald Trump is, in fact, a criminal-level tax cheat.”
Iran Threatens War Will Spread Beyond Middle East If Trump Resumes Attacks, Lebanon’s Health Ministry Says at Least 22 People Killed in Israeli Attacks Despite Ceasefire, Israeli Forces Intercept Last Remaining Boats with Gaza Sumud Flotilla, Abducting Over 400 Activists, Israel’s Far-Right Finance Minister Smotrich Says ICC Seeks Arrest Warrant Against Him, Victims of Islamic Center Shooting in San Diego Identified, DOJ “Forever” Bars IRS from Probing Trump, His Sons and Their Family Business, Democratic Senators Grill Transportation Secretary Duffy About Reality TV Road Trip Project, WHO: 600 Cases of Ebola and 139 Suspected Deaths in Congo and Uganda, Nigeria’s Military Confirms Joint Strikes with U.S. Against Islamic State, Killing 175 People, Trump Admin Plans to Resettle 10,000 Additional White South Africans in the U.S., Federal Jury Rejects Elon Musk’s $150B Lawsuit Against OpenAI and Sam Altman, GOP Congressmember Massie Loses Primary to Trump-Backed Challenger Gallrein, Biotech CEO Rami Elghandour Speaks at “The People’s Convocation for Palestine” at Rutgers University