Politics
The DOJ Gave Trump’s Family IRS Audit Immunity. The Treasury Secretary Won’t Discuss It.
By Mike Harper · June 4, 2026
The $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund is dead. The executive order that created it has been abandoned. But buried inside the settlement documents that established the fund was a one-page addendum — and that addendum may still be in effect.
On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testified before a bipartisan Senate panel and declined to answer repeated questions about a provision in the DOJ-IRS settlement that appears to prohibit the IRS and the DOJ from investigating or auditing the Trump family, the Trump Organization, or any affiliated entities for any conduct that occurred before May 19, 2026. The questions came from both Republican and Democratic senators. Bessent declined to answer all of them.
The addendum’s existence was first reported by the Center for American Progress after researchers reviewed the full settlement documents filed in federal court. 35 former federal judges subsequently filed a motion asking the court to reopen the case, describing the addendum as “a fraud on the court” and arguing that a sitting president cannot use a DOJ settlement to immunize himself and his business interests from future law enforcement action.
The legal theory behind the addendum — if it holds — is extraordinary. It would mean that whatever the IRS or DOJ might find if they examined the Trump Organization’s finances, tax filings, or business conduct from any period before May 19 of this year, they are contractually barred from pursuing it. The IRS audits sitting presidents as a matter of long-standing policy. Whether that policy can be superseded by a DOJ settlement is a legal question that has never been tested, because no prior administration has attempted anything like this.
Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden was direct about what Bessent’s refusal to engage means.
“The Treasury Secretary will not tell the American people whether Donald Trump has given himself a permanent get-out-of-jail-free card from the IRS. That tells you everything you need to know.”
The legal status of the addendum is uncertain. Federal District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who issued the temporary injunction blocking the Anti-Weaponization Fund itself, has not yet ruled on whether the addendum is separately enforceable or whether it falls with the fund. The 35 former federal judges’ motion to reopen the case is pending. The DOJ has not filed a public response.
What is known: the addendum was in the documents. Senators asked about it under oath. The Treasury Secretary said nothing. The fund that carried it is dead. Whether the immunity it may have conveyed died with it is the question that no one in the administration is willing to answer.