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An amended lawsuit now challenges a May memo from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that gives sweeping immunity to President Trump, his adult children and their business from any government review into their past conduct.
The May 19 memo says the government is “forever barred and precluded” from investigating any action taken by the family or their businesses entities that occurred before it was signed by Blanche.
Though the memo could immunize Trump and his family from any number of criminal investigations, one clear benefit was halting any review of the president’s prior tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), shielding him from a tax bill of $100 million or more.
“The President of the United States and his family are obligated to pay taxes owed, just like every other taxpayer, and, per the IRS’s own policy, the IRS is required to audit the President each year he is in office. But the Immunity Order prevents the IRS from auditing the President’s tax returns and from recovering any underpaid taxes. Under the Immunity Order, career IRS employees will be forced to terminate ongoing audits of the President and his businesses, giving the President a lucrative and unconstitutional emolument,” Democracy Forward, the group representing the plaintiffs, wrote in the suit.
“That would be unprecedented under any circumstance; it is all the more remarkable considering that the President profited an eye-popping $2.2 billion after returning to the White House.”
The May 19 memo was issued the day after Blanche created the $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund and framed as closing out Trump’s litigation against the IRS after he sued them for $10 billion over the leaking of his tax returns.
While numerous suits have challenged the legality of the anti-weaponization fund, the filing is the first to address the immunity agreement.
The suit argues that by shielding Trump from review into his past tax filings, the memo runs afoul of a federal statute “which prohibits the President from asking the IRS, either directly or indirectly, to end audits of particular taxpayers, including the President’s audits.”
“Congress put into place substantial protections to restrict the president’s access to tax information and prevent future presidents and their cabinets from carrying out partisan plots under the auspices of tax administration. The Immunity Order violates these protections and overrides an IRS requirement, in place for nearly 50 years, that the president’s tax returns be audited by career IRS employees each year he is in office,” the filing states.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Blanche has since rescinded the memo creating the anti-weaponization fund following demands from GOP senators weighing his nomination for attorney general.
But that memo still leaves the door open for Trump to press in court to revive the matter.
In another document shared Sunday, Blanche also stressed that the May 19 memo applies “only retroactively” — a detail clear from its inception. The document makes no significant changes to the immunity memo.
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