"Dictatorship in Action": David Cay Johnston on $1.8B Slush Fund [View all]

In a shocking and unprecedented move, the Justice Department issued a memo Tuesday saying the IRS is "forever barred" from investigating past tax returns of President Trump, his family, company and "related companies." It came just a day after the department announced the creation of a $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund to "compensate" people prosecuted for supposedly political reasons by the Biden and Obama administrations — a move expected to benefit January 6 insurrectionists, other Trump allies and even Trump himself. It's all part of an agreement between the Department of Justice and President Trump's personal attorneys in exchange for Trump dropping a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over leaked tax returns. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — President Trump's former personal attorney — will appoint the commission overseeing the Justice Department's new fund.

"This is dictatorship in action," says reporter David Cay Johnston. He calls the "anti-weaponization" fund "a slush fund to pay a criminal enforcement arm, a violent arm of Trump supporters to intimidate people" and says the order to not investigate the Trump family's dealings "screams that Donald Trump is, in fact, a criminal-level tax cheat."