WASHINGTON — As part of a settlement agreement resolving President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns to the press, the U.S. government has effectively agreed to never prosecute Trump, his sons, or the Trump Organization over tax filings made before the settlement agreement took effect.
The settlement agreement, effective May 18, 2026, resolves President Donald J. Trump v. Internal Revenue Service, a civil lawsuit President Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and the Trump Organization LLC filed against the IRS and U.S. Department of the Treasury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Jan. 29, 2026.
The complaint alleged that former IRS employee/contractor Charles Littlejohn illegally accessed and disclosed the plaintiffs’ tax returns and/or tax-return information to media outlets in violation of the Internal Revenue Code and the Privacy Act.
According to a one-page document about the settlement agreement posted to the Department of Justice’s website that was signed by Attorney General Todd Blanche, the United States “releases, waives, acquits, and forever discharges” each plaintiff and is “forever barred and precluded” from prosecuting or pursuing claims, counterclaims, causes of action, appeals or requests for relief against them with respect to the matters that were raised or could be raised in connection with the case, including tax returns filed before the settlement agreement took effect.
Under the broader settlement agreement, Trump and the other plaintiffs will receive a formal apology from the United States, but no monetary payment or damages. The agreement says the parties settled the case and related agency claims effective May 18, 2026, “to bring the case and the pending agency claims to a close forever and finally.”
Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heroux criticized the settlement, saying it raises concerns about accountability.
“I would just call it what it is — the biggest blatant grift in U.S. history,” Heroux said. “Any time you are making it so you can’t be investigated, you are creating the conditions for corruption.”
The settlement also creates a $1.776 billion fund, called “The Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which the Department of Justice describes as a systemic process to hear and redress claims from others who say they were harmed by similar “lawfare” or “weaponization.”
The agreement defines “lawfare” and “weaponization” as the alleged use of government power to target individuals, groups or entities for improper and unlawful political, personal or ideological reasons.
“The conduct alleged in the case and in the pending agency claims is representative of the 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 (‘lawfare’ and ‘weaponization’),” the settlement agreement states. “Other well-known examples of lawfare and weaponization include the Biden administration’s abuse of the FACE Act, the Biden Administration’s wrongful labeling of certain parents as domestic terrorists, and the IRS’s targeting of groups based on improper ideological criteria.”
The fund will consist of five members. The attorney general is required to appoint the members, including the chair, within 30 days of the settlement’s effective date. One member will be chosen in consultation with congressional leadership.
The members will serve until the fund concludes unless they resign or are removed by the president, who may remove any member without cause. Any replacement must be chosen the same way as the original appointment.
The fund will have the authority to set its own procedures for submitting, receiving, processing, granting and denying claims. It may issue formal apologies, issue monetary relief, grant claims in whole or in part, deny claims in whole or in part, defer review of claims and request evidence or other support, including information from federal agencies.
Submission of a claim to the fund is voluntary, and claimants may include entities. To be eligible, a claimant must assert at least one legal claim stating that the claimant was a victim of “lawfare” or “weaponization.”
If a claimant accepts relief from the fund, the claimant must give up all other relief, including judicial relief, whether previously asserted or not.
The fund must stop processing claims no later than Dec. 1, 2028.
Heroux criticized the fund, saying it could provide monetary relief to people who claim they were targeted by the federal government, including potential claimants connected to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
