Former IRS officials urge judge to review Trump tax immunity deal

Former IRS officials pressed a federal judge in Miami to scrutinize a settlement that would make the Internal Revenue Service “forever barred and precluded” from auditing Donald Trump, his sons, the Trump Organization and related entities over returns filed before May 18, 2026. They said the arrangement goes far beyond ending a lawsuit over leaked tax records and threatens to weaken the rules that keep tax enforcement separate from politics.

The filing came Monday in U.S. District Court in Miami, where Judge Kathleen Williams had already reopened the case last month after 35 former federal judges argued the agreement may have been a fraud on the court. The dispute centers on the May 19, 2026, Justice Department settlement in Trump v. Internal Revenue Service, No. 1:26-cv-20609, which ended Trump’s $10 billion suit and also created a $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund for people who claim harm from government “weaponization” or “lawfare.”

The former officials, including a former IRS commissioner, a former chief of the Justice Department’s tax division, a former assistant attorney general and a former national taxpayer advocate, said the tax-audit immunity is unlawful and clashes with tax-code protections designed to block political interference in audits. They also argued that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche lacked authority to resolve the audit issues because the matters were never referred to the Justice Department for prosecution. In their view, the order would leave one tax system for Trump and his family and another for everyone else.

Former IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel called the remedy unprecedented, underscoring how unusual it would be for a sitting president to secure blanket protection from past audits through a civil settlement with the government he controls. The amicus brief also says the arrangement violates tax-code provisions and the Domestic Emoluments Clause.

The fight traces back to Trump’s long-running tax disputes, including an audit linked to a $72.9 million refund he received starting around 2010. The New York Times estimated that ending the audits could save Trump about $100 million. Trump sued after the leak of his tax records by former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn, who pleaded guilty in 2023 and was sentenced to five years in prison on Jan. 29, 2024, for unauthorized disclosure of tax-return information. The case has become a broader test of whether a president can use a civil lawsuit to shut down tax scrutiny of himself and his family.