Trump drops lawsuit against IRS amid reported $1.7 billion tax-payer slush fund for president and his allies

Donald Trump has dropped his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service amid reports that he is poised to gain control over a $1.7 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund for his business entities and allies.

The Justice Department was leading negotiations with Trump in which he would settle the lawsuit in exchange for control of the billion-dollar fund, allowing him to compensate allies who claim they were persecuted by the Biden administration.

Trump, along with his two eldest sons and the Trump Organization, voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit against the tax-collecting agency ‘with prejudice,’ according to a Monday court filing. The family will not be able to renew the claims in another civil complaint. 

The lawsuit was brought forward in January against the IRS and Treasury Department over the 2019 leak of Trump’s tax returns to media outlets. The President claims the agency failed to protect confidential tax information belonging to him and his business.

The administration is moving forward with a fund that would give Trump complete authority to distribute the money to anyone alleging harm from the Biden administration’s ‘weaponization’ of the legal system, including nearly 1,600 January 6 defendants.

While Trump is barred from directly receiving payments on those three claims, entities associated with him are not explicitly prohibited from filing additional ones. 

Trump would also have the power to remove commission members without cause, and the panel would face no obligation to disclose how it awards the funds.

Some administration officials have raised ethical concerns over the arrangement, and Trump himself conceded last October that ‘it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself.’