Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Trump is Creating a Permanent Kleptocracy The IRS slush fund scandal is the latest step toward institutionalizing corruption for all future presidents. Where is MAGA's outrage? Ron Fournier May 20 IT WAS BAD enough when President Trump gave himself a taxpayer-fueled $1.7 billion slush fund to settle his frivolous lawsuit with the IRS. But now we learn that the sweetheart deal he cut with an agency he controls comes with a stay-out-of-jail card. As part of the resolution to his suit over the leak of his tax returns, the U.S. is “forever barred and precluded” from examining or prosecuting Trump, his sons, and the Trump organization’s current tax examinations, according to a one-page document posted to the Justice Department’s website. Trump has literally put himself above the law, exaggerating the damage done to him and pressuring the IRS to give him a free pass on all past —and possibly future — wrongdoing. It’s a blank check for corruption. It moves the United States closer to a permanent kleptocracy — a form of government in which the empowered systematically use their offices to enrich themselves — unless you’re naive enough to think that precedents like this won’t be copied by future Democratic and Republican administrations. The document is signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s private attorney. Outrageous. It is a separate addendum to the original settlement announced Monday, and was quietly added to the Justice Department website on Tuesday. Oh, and remember: Trumped repeatedly promised voters he would release his tax records. So the leaker (an IRS contractor) simply kept Trump’s promise. Why do I call Trump’s IRS lawsuit frivolous? After the presiding judge questioned whether Trump could legally sue an agency he controls, IRS lawyers prepared to fight the suit, according to this New York Times story: I.R.S. officials prepared a 25-page memorandum outlining what they saw as flaws in Mr. Trump’s suit and advising the Justice Department to move to dismiss it, according to two people familiar with the memo. That memo was provided to Treasury officials in April, and it is unclear if they passed it along to its intended recipients at the Justice Department, according to the people, who spoke anonymously to discuss internal government deliberations. No lawyers from the Justice Department ever appeared in court to respond to the suit or disputed any of Mr. Trump’s claims, which demanded at least $10 billion from the I.R.S. for not doing enough to prevent the leak of his tax information. Forbidding the IRS from fighting, Trump reached into taxpayers’ pockets for $1.7 billion that he can spend virtually anyway he wants: The slush fund will be overseen by a board he controls. The settlement designates the money to people Trump claims were unfairly treated by Biden’s Department of Justice. Some suspect money will go to the Jan. 6 rioters who attempted to overthrow the democratically elected Biden administration in 2021. Or to people ensnared in Trump’s multiple criminal investigations. My gut: Most of the money goes directly to Trump and his family because that’s the pattern he set during multiple feather-nesting schemes — from his personalized smart phones to the ethically dubious stock trades and cryptocurrency investments. In January, the Times editorial board calculated the size of Trump’s gift: $1.4 billion. President Trump has never been a man to ask what he can do for his country. In his second term, as in his first, he is instead testing the limits of what his country can do for him. He has poured his energy and creativity into the exploitation of the presidency — into finding out just how much money people, corporations and other nations are willing to put into his pockets in hopes of bending the power of the government to the service of their interests. A review by the editorial board relying on analyses from news organizations shows that Mr. Trump has used the office of the presidency to make at least $1.4 billion. We know this number to be an underestimate because some of his profits remain hidden from public view. And they continue to grow. He is the most corrupt president in our nation’s 250-year history. I’m not naive: Corruption in politics is as old as politics, and both major U.S. parties are steeped in it. But rather than oppose kleptocracy, as they claim to do, MAGA voters defend it, rationalize it, and even applaud it. Where is their outrage?