Addendum quietly slipped into widely criticized agreement creating a $1.7bn fund to compensate president’s allies

The justice department quietly added a provision barring the IRS from auditing Donald Trump’s tax returns on Tuesday, amending a widely criticized agreement that creates a secretive and loosely controlled $1.776bn fund to compensate allies of the president.

The addendum, signed by Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, says the government is “forever barred” and “precluded” from examining the tax returns of Trump, his family, company and “related companies”. The agreement applies to anything filed before the agreement was reached. It was posted on the justice department website on Tuesday morning, a day after the department announced creation of the fund.

The inclusion only adds to mounting scrutiny of the wider agreement reached on Tuesday. The arrangement was announced after Trump said he was dropping a $10bn lawsuit against the IRS and other specious claims against the government in exchange for creating the compensation fund. IRS officials recommended fighting Trump’s lawsuit, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, but the agency decided to settle it anyway, raising further questions about improper interference.

  • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Two things can be true. It can be the democrats’ fault also. Which it clearly is. Voters have a responsibility to be informed but they aren’t. If anyone is defending anything it’s you and your friends defending that ignorance.

    I’m not surprised in any way that you implied everyone is a zionist who disagrees with you. That tracks completely.

    • Grimy@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      It’s first and foremost the people in charge of the party at fault for losing the election. They are the ones that need to change, not the voters.

      This is why I see it as Israeli talking points. It’s basically saying “Kamala was right, it’s the voters that have to learn to stomach genocide, Israel calling the shots and the kleptocracy in general”.

      The dems are supposed to be the good guys, yet they saw the low low bar that was trump and decided to aim just above it, and missed. We should be vocal about their fuck up, not giving them a pass. You are defending their actions by scapegoating them away.

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        not the voters.

        So you’re directly saying ignorance/zealotry is acceptable.

        Kamala was right, it’s the voters that have to learn to stomach genocide, Israel calling the shots and the kleptocracy in general

        Absolutely zero people say or think this, and you making it up here shows you cannot be taken seriously. I do not believe you voted for Kamala. That’s just your way of trying to obtain credibility.

        • Grimy@lemmy.world
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          I’m saying the pro genocide zealotry coming from politicians is the actual problem. Being against genocide is far from ignorance.

          I understand pragmatism as much as the next guy, and I did take that route, but you will not catch me dead saying the ones that drew the line at genocide are somehow in the wrong.

          The party has to change and they were wrong to push the genocide. It’s as easy as that, and you are pushing against that change and encouraging their behavior.

          And ya, people don’t say it outright but that’s exactly what it implies.

          • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            There will never be a world in which I can agree that people sacrificing everyone’s future, while literally making worse the issue they claim to be prioritizing, is acceptable. It’s myopic and idiotic to do that, and saying so implies nothing more than exactly that.

            I’m inclined to believe that at least half the people spreading this message aren’t that stupid though, but rather bad actors, oftentimes foreign-paid, bad actors.

            • Grimy@lemmy.world
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              There will never be a world in which I can agree that people sacrificing everyone’s future, while literally making worse the issue they claim to be prioritizing, is acceptable

              Literally what the dems did last election, and they orchestrated the situation instead of just reacting to it.

              I blame the corrupt politicians instead of ordinary folks making a bad decision, especially when the “bad” decision is the actual moral one (still bad in the scope of things, just morally better). You do you bro.

              • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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                24 hours ago

                Literally what the dems did last election, and they orchestrated the situation instead of just reacting to it.

                Interesting that when a small group of people do something, it’s horrifying but if millions do it you’re okay with it.

              • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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                the “bad” decision is the actual moral one

                It only would have been moral if even the simplest of minds couldn’t have foreseen what their action would lead to. They could have but refused to, thereby accepting full culpability.