{"id":48309,"date":"2026-05-19T12:08:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T19:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=48309"},"modified":"2026-05-19T12:08:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T19:08:58","slug":"a-1700000000-fraud-on-the-american-taxpayer-trump-to-drop-irs-suit-in-exchange-for-maga-slush-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/a-1700000000-fraud-on-the-american-taxpayer-trump-to-drop-irs-suit-in-exchange-for-maga-slush-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A $1,700,000,000 fraud on the American taxpayer\u2019: Trump to drop IRS suit in exchange for MAGA slush fund"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"US<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (L), accompanied by U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R), speaks to members of the media aboard Air Force One on October 27, 2025, in flight. Photo by Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posted in Politics and Movements: US<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a massive and unprecedented presidential plunder of the American people,\u201d said Rep. Jamie Raskin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by\u00a0Jake Johnson<\/a><\/strong> May 18, 2026 (therealnews.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (L), accompanied by U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R), speaks to members of the media aboard Air Force One on October 27, 2025, in flight. Photo by Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Common<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on <\/em>May 15, 2026<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday accused US President Donald Trump<\/a> of \u201corchestrating a $1,700,000,000 fraud on the American taxpayer to line the pockets of his MAGA political allies\u201d amid new reporting on the terms Trump is seeking in talks to settle his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABC News reported<\/a> late Thursday that Trump is expected to drop his lawsuit<\/a> in the coming days \u201cin exchange for the creation of a $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration<\/a>.\u201d The money would come from the Treasury Department\u2019s Judgment Fund<\/a>, which pays out court judgments and settlements against the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president is also expected to receive a public apology from the IRS for the leak of his tax returns during his first White House<\/a> term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Jamie Raskin<\/a> (D-Md.) said in a statement that the reported settlement terms represent \u201canother installment\u201d in Trump\u2019s \u201congoing effort to turn the federal government into a personal cash machine for his unpopular extremist movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a massive and unprecedented presidential plunder of the American people,\u201d said Raskin. \u201cWorse still, this is only the beginning\u2014a declaration that the prior payouts were just a down payment, and that he now intends to earmark billions more in taxpayer dollars for his political allies, sycophants, and private militia of unemployed insurrectionists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe president has no authority to conjure up billion-dollar compensation schemes or raid the Judgment Fund, which exists to settle valid lawsuits. Trump is systematically converting neutral government mechanisms into a presidential slush fund to build his army of political dependents,\u201d Raskin continued. \u201cCongress must act immediately to reassert the power of the purse and stop this brazen looting of taxpayer funds before this \u2018pilot program\u2019 for corruption<\/a> becomes the permanent operating system of our government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to ABC, which cited unnamed sources who emphasized that the settlement\u2019s terms should not be considered final until officially announced, the deal is \u201cexpected to prohibit Trump from directly receiving payments related to those three legal claims; however, entities associated with Trump are not explicitly barred from filing additional claims.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe arrangement would be an unprecedented use of taxpayer dollars with little oversight,\u201d ABC noted. \u201cUnder the terms of the potential settlement agreement, President Trump would have the authority to remove members of the commission running the fund without cause, and the commission would be under no obligation to disclose its procedures or decision-making process for awarding more than a billion dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABC\u2019s story came on the heels of reports earlier this week<\/a> revealing internal Justice Department discussions on settling Trump\u2019s lawsuit, which he filed in late January. Last month, a federal judge questioned<\/a> the constitutionality of Trump\u2019s suit, noting that \u201che is the sitting president and his named adversaries are entities whose decisions are subject to his direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReal story: Judge was about to throw out the case because Trump controls both parties,\u201d Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) wrote<\/a> late Thursday. \u201cBefore it\u2019s dismissed, Trump tells both parties to reach a \u2018settlement.\u2019 Settlement shields Trump from any future audit and creates a secret slush fund that can dole out money to anyone with no transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMind-boggling corruption,\u201d Goldman added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Related<\/em><\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Beyond despicable,\u2019 says Democrat after White House official says Trump \u2018bored\u2019 with Iran war<\/a><\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Cuba\u2019s next,\u2019 says Lindsey Graham as illegal Trump-Israel war on Iran kills hundreds<\/a><\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A moral obscenity\u2019: Trump budget pairs record military boost with billions in cuts to social programs<\/a><\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams. Follow him on Twitter: @johnsonjakep<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More by Jake Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (L), accompanied by U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R), speaks to members of the media aboard Air Force One on October 27, 2025, in flight. Photo by Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images Posted in Politics and Movements: US \u201cThis is a… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1898,1896],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48310,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48309\/revisions\/48310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}