Featured Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch / Staff / Getty
U.S. President Donald Trump and his sons will no longer be subject to ongoing tax audits having been granted immunity by the Department of Justice, with the move being made in exchange for potentially key funding.
There have been countless accusations thrown at Donald Trump regarding his finances and tax payments since he first announced himself as a political candidate in 2015, and those conversations still haven't gone away.
Despite holding office for a combined six-year period across two separate terms now, Trump has made the most of his power through incredibly profitable business ventures — many of which have been handled by his sons and wider family while he takes residence in the White House.
These include the only recently released Trump phone – complete with hideous gold accents – alongside cryptocurrency protocol World Liberty Financial, which has successfully introduced a new stablecoin with the help of the government.
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The darker side of these financial successes, however, is found in the various legal accusations that have been levied against the president's companies, including tax-related crimes committed by his real estate business, the Trump Organization.
This particular company was fined $1.6 million back in 2023 having been found guilty of fraud by a jury, and the man himself was found liable for business fraud last year through the inflation of property values.
Tax return leaks left the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) subject to a $10 billion lawsuit from Trump, and a settlement from this has made it so that the president and his sons are now immune to any ongoing investigations for the indefinite future.
As reported by The National, this was part of a settlement that sees the government provide $1.8 billion in funding support for victims of alleged 'lawfare', but the circumstances surrounding this exchange show that it's a win-win for the Trump family.
Not only are they never allowed to be prosecuted for any potential tax-related crimes emerging from these specific returns, but the lawfare funding specifically relates to individuals who believe they were legally and politically targeted by the Biden administration's justice department.
Todd Blanche, the current acting attorney general, outlined that the $1.8 billion fund provides "a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponisation to be heard and seek redress," although some might not feel that it's a fair exchange considering what the president received in return.
One spokesperson for the IRS revealed, when speaking to the Financial Times, that the immunity granted to the president's family applies "only in respect to any existing audits," as "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."
