Raskin blasts Trump IRS deal as unconstitutional political slush fund

Rep. Jamie Raskin said President Donald Trump’s expected IRS settlement would amount to a constitutional breach dressed up as compensation. The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee called the arrangement a “political slush fund” and said Congress never appropriated the $1.776 billion at the center of the deal, which means the White House cannot simply redirect public money to settle politically connected claims.

The proposed fund would be used to pay people who say they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration, but the stakes extend far beyond that description. The commission overseeing the money could also hear claims from nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, along with entities tied to Trump himself. Raskin and other Democrats say that setup would invite a future president to steer federal dollars toward allies and loyalists without a vote from Congress.

The dispute grew out of Trump’s Jan. 29 lawsuit in federal court in Miami, where Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and the Trump Organization sued the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of the Treasury for at least $10 billion over the leak of Trump’s 2019 tax returns. The complaint centers on former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn, who prosecutors said intentionally obtained taxpayer data and leaked Trump material to The New York Times while also passing thousands of other Americans’ tax records to ProPublica. Littlejohn pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024.

Judge Kathleen Williams has already raised a separate constitutional question: whether Trump can keep pressing a lawsuit against agencies he oversees as president. She set a May 20 deadline for the Justice Department and Trump’s lawyers to explain whether the case satisfies the Constitution’s case-or-controversy requirement, a basic rule meant to keep federal courts from hearing disputes that are not legally adversarial.

Democratic lawmakers have expanded their criticism beyond Raskin. Sen. Ron Wyden called the reported arrangement one of “the most corrupt acts in American political history,” while Wyden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Raskin and Rep. Dave Min have introduced legislation to bar presidents, vice presidents and certain family members from collecting settlement money from the government. Trump’s legal team has defended the lawsuit by portraying Littlejohn as a rogue, politically motivated employee and arguing that the IRS failed to protect confidential tax information.