With weaponization fund in doubt, Trump will keep tax audit immunity, sources say

By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Nandita Bose and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department’s agreement with President Donald Trump to bar future audits into his or his family’s past tax records will remain in place even as his weaponization fund has been put on hold, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. 

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, cautioned that Trump has not decided if the $1.8 billion fund has been officially closed, but said that White House officials spent much of Monday calling lawmakers to assure them there’d be no payouts after a Republican revolt.

That assurance has done little to quiet Republican demands ahead of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s House subcommittee hearing Tuesday afternoon, where lawmakers are expected to press him for a definitive promise that the fund is dead.

“Right now it’s a multi-vehicle pile-up,” said Republican Senator John Kennedy, adding that his colleagues want clarifications from Blanche before moving forward on a $72 billion immigration enforcement bill.

Blanche faces a Congress furious at the Trump administration over the fund, created as part of a settlement between DOJ and Trump in ​which he agreed ​to ⁠drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. 

Officials familiar with the White House’s thinking said Blanche’s hope of being appointed attorney general is tied to how he responds.

“He has to come back with some answers,” one of the officials said.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. On Monday, DOJ said it would abide by a court order that temporarily paused the fund until June 12 but did not say what that would mean for the fund’s permanent future. 

Trump broke his public silence on Tuesday afternoon, posting a link to a Substack titled, “The Truth the Media Won’t Tell You About the Anti-Weaponization Fund.” The post praised Trump for giving money to those who say they’ve been abused by the government and criticized the media and Democrats for calling it a slush fund. 

After a Republican Senate lunch on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters he spoke with Blanche earlier in the day and thought the acting attorney general would ease member concerns at the House hearing.

“I think his statement is going to be very definitive,” Thune said. 

Thune has said he wants the bill to be narrowly focused on immigration enforcement and not on Trump’s other priorities, keeping a provision out of the bill that would have allowed spending $1 billion to secure a 90,000-square-foot ornate ballroom on the White House grounds that Trump wants.

Democrats have called for legislation to bar the fund. 

“Let’s be clear, Trump has not killed this slush fund,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters on Tuesday. He said that legislation must also negate the no-tax audit agreement. 

(Reporting by Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Nandita Bose and Richard Cowan. Editing by Michael Learmonth and Andrea Ricci )