DOJ Facilitates a Heist

We can’t become numb to that.

“People are grasping for words” to describe the nearly $1.8 billion dollar slush fund Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is creating purportedly in exchange for his withdrawal of a claim against his own Internal Revenue Service. It has been compared to a George Clooney movie heist, and one criminal defense lawyer (who has been around these types of cases) compared it to a Tony Soprano shakedown. It is all of those things, and more.

I have investigated and prosecuted those types of schemes (as has acting Attorney General Todd Blanche). And if I had seen something like this in my 17 years as a federal prosecutor, my colleagues and I would have been in awe at how brazen the scam was. Of course this DOJ will not investigate or challenge the legality of this agreement. In fact, DOJ is in on it. Let me explain:

Trump’s lawsuit demanded $10 billion in damages for the unauthorized disclosure of his tax information by a government contractor who pleaded guilty in 2023. I say that the creation of the DOJ fund is “purportedly” in exchange for dropping this lawsuit because the idea that Trump withdrew his lawsuit against the IRS because of a legitimate settlement is a fiction. He withdrew the lawsuit because it had no merit to begin with, as we now know IRS lawyers advised the DOJ in a 25-page memo and as the district court judge assigned to the case implied.

(Dragon Claws/iStock)

But the scam does not end there. Trump and the IRS created a document called a “settlement agreement,” which was not filed with the judge (as most settlements for actual disputed cases would be), who had already questioned its merits and ordered a hearing to get to the bottom of what was clearly not a valid federal case. That document directed Blanche (Trump’s former personal lawyer ) to establish an “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which, of course, this DOJ immediately did, “to provide a systematic process” to address claims on behalf of unknown people who “like Plaintiffs,” (i.e. Trump and his family) “incurred harm from similar Lawfare.” Blanche claims that anyone can apply for the funds and that there will be transparency and objectivity without regard to politics as to how the money is distributed. But (and I never thought I would say this about a DOJ leader, let alone someone I used to know and respect), none of that can be taken at face value given, as courts have found, that this DOJ is eroding the presumption of good faith that it has historically been given. And that the wording of the document itself belies this claim.

The document gives a (sort of) definition of lawfare: “sustained use of the levers of government power by Democrat elected officials, political and career federal employees, contractors, and agents in order to target individuals, groups, and entities for improper and unlawful political, personal, and/or ideological reasons.” And it provides handy examples of “lawfare” and “weaponization,” including the Biden administration’s purported abuse of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. (The Weaponization Working Group former Attorney General Pam Bondi set up at Trump’s direction recently issued a report about FACE that was full of falsehoods, as explained here, among other places.) In addition, the so-called “commissioners” who oversee the distribution of funds will be chosen by the AG (except one) and subject to removal by Trump — hardly a recipe for objective and independent assessment of so-called claims.

Trump agreed not to take money from this fund (so gracious), but the agreement was amended — after Blanche defended it before the Senate — to include a sweeping release under which the IRS is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing “examinations” of Trump, “related or affiliated individuals,” and related trusts and businesses. Forever barred. Let that sink in. As another commentator put it, “it’s a pardon on steroids for Trump, Trump’s family and Trump businesses.” This is likely not applicable to future administrations for a whole host of legal reasons, but that is not the point.

The point is that Americans are growing uncomfortably numb to Trump and his family using the presidency and its powers and privileges for their and their allies’ benefit, and this deal stands at the top of the top 10. We cannot tolerate that. We must call out when the media reports this deal as if it were a legitimate court settlement. It is not. It is the product of back-room self-dealing — much like the “settlements” with law firms Trump targeted (several federal courts have now ruled that the executive orders targeting law firms that did not “settle” are illegal). This is how this president and his loyalists work: They manipulate the legal system and the powers of the DOJ to make illegitimate acts and deals look legitimate. And the media plays along.

Most distressing of all is a culture in which the claim that the DOJ under Biden was “weaponized” is not seriously questioned anymore, with few exceptions. It is now so thoroughly embedded, not just in Trump’s lexicon of lies, but in DOJ memos, court filings, statements by DOJ leaders, and fake settlement agreements. We cannot lose sight of the fact that this is a fictional narrative created for political purposes. And the biggest scam of all is that the Trump administration, through its official agencies, now parrots false political arguments: that Jan. 6 wasn’t an insurrection but a peaceful protest; that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, not that he lost; that the Jan. 6 rioters were unfairly persecuted, not that they each received due process and all the rights and privileges afforded criminal defendants in our justice system and all of were convicted by judges and juries or pleaded guilty. This propaganda has become so embedded by Trump and his willing loyalists that barely anyone questions it anymore.

We cannot become numb to that.

We are now literally paying the price for it — financially from taxpayer funds and as a democratic society in which the rule of law is no longer fair and impartial but a tool for a slush fund for Trump’s cronies.

Mimi Rocah was the district attorney of Westchester County, New York, from 2021 to 2024 and was a federal prosecutor from 2001 to 2017.

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