Responding to: How the Trump DOJ Extracted a Guilty Plea from John Bolton — Andrew C. McCarthy · 2026-06-04

What the Piece Argues

Andrew McCarthy argues that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s three-paragraph settlement agreement, which purports to grant Donald Trump, his two elder sons, and the Trump Organization perpetual immunity from all future IRS audits and prosecution, is legally unenforceable. He grounds this conclusion in 26 U.S.C. § 7217, which prohibits the president from indirectly requesting the IRS to halt audits, and notes that binding immunity traditionally requires judicial approval under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 or 18 U.S.C. § 6003. McCarthy concludes that because the IRS falls under the Treasury Department rather than the Justice Department, Blanche lacked the constitutional and statutory authority to bind the IRS, rendering the agreement a collusive attempt to leverage executive power for personal financial shielding.

Receipts

The claim: The AG’s signature on a standard release is a routine, lawful exercise of the exemption in Section 7217 — just a settlement of civil litigation, nothing to see. The reality: The exemption lets the AG make a request, not bind the IRS, and the president is explicitly forbidden from making that request indirectly. The whole arrangement was yanked out of court to avoid a judge’s review, and the sole beneficiary is the president himself, purchasing personal audit immunity with the withdrawal of a lawsuit a judge was about to call collusive.

  • What the framing wants you to believe: The DOJ always resolves litigation by granting releases; this is no different from any other tax‑case immunity deal. The AG, acting in his official capacity, merely dropped the government’s claims against the plaintiffs and released them from future audits in exchange for the suit’s dismissal.
  • What’s really going on: The “settlement” is a self‑dealing mechanism in which the president — using a lawsuit he controlled as both plaintiff and de facto defendant — extracted a personal audit shield from his own acting AG. The statutory exemption is a permission to request, not command, and the IRS sits in Treasury, not DOJ. The president is an “applicable person” under §7217 who “shall be unlawful” from making an audit request “directly or indirectly.” Blanche’s letter is an indirect request on behalf of Trump, precisely what the statute prohibits.
  • Who benefits: Donald Trump, personally, and his two older sons and the Trump Organization. The reported tax exposure at stake exceeds $100 million.
  • The omitted fact: The lawsuit was discontinued to prevent Judge Kathleen M. Williams from acting on the settlement. The author notes that Williams appeared poised to find the suit collusive, meaning the entire “consideration” for the immunity was likely a sham — a case that didn’t meet the constitutional “case or controversy” threshold.
  • Anchor citation: Section 7217 of Title 26, U.S. Code, which the piece details: the AG has no authority over the IRS, the president is barred from indirect requests, and the immunity deal was never submitted to a court for approval as required for other forms of DOJ immunity (Rule 11, 18 U.S.C. §6003, etc.).

The DEFCON Ladder

DEFCON 5 — Polite Reframe

When to use: Persuadable moderates or good-faith family members who value institutional process and need a calm, fact-driven correction.

When we hear that the Justice Department has settled a presidential lawsuit by granting the president and his family permanent immunity from IRS audits, we are invited to see it as a routine exercise of executive authority. The reality of the statute tells a different story. 26 U.S.C. Section 7217 expressly prohibits the president from ordering the IRS to terminate an audit, and it places the IRS squarely under the Treasury Department, entirely outside the attorney general’s chain of command. Furthermore, when immunity from prosecution is warranted in our legal system, it is granted by an Article III judge under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 or 18 U.S.C. Section 6003—not drafted on department letterhead by an acting attorney general acting as a private litigant to settle his employer’s personal lawsuit. True constitutionalism does not mean finding clever ways to route around the courts; it means recognizing that the rule of law applies most strictly to those who hold the most power. We are the builders of a system where no officeholder is above the statute they are sworn to uphold.

DEFCON 4 — Firm Moral Superiority

When to use: Identity-protective conservative or mixed-faith actors who invoke constitutional values and need to see the gap between their stated principles and this policy’s mechanics.

We are told that the acting attorney general’s three-paragraph memo settling a $10 billion lawsuit and immunizing the president’s family from all future IRS audits is a lawful exercise of the Justice Department’s authority. Let’s look at the text of the law. Section 7217 of the tax code prohibits any executive official—including the president—from directly or indirectly requesting that the IRS stop an audit. The statute carves out an exception so the attorney general might make a direct request; it does not empower the attorney general to issue a binding order on behalf of the president to an agency he does not control. The IRS belongs to the Treasury. The Justice Department does not hold the leash. Moreover, immunity from prosecution in the United States is a judicial function, reviewed and granted by a federal court under 18 U.S.C. Section 6003, not an executive favor traded for dropping a collusive lawsuit. Calling this a settlement is a profound mischaracterization of what is actually happening: it is a concentrated transfer of financial protection to a single family, bypassing the very courts the conservative legal movement pledged to defend. We are the builders of a republic where statutes mean what they say, and executive power is constrained by the very laws it claims to enforce.

DEFCON 3 — Mockery and Ridicule

When to use: Mixed-faith partisan audiences or bystanders, where a sharp, satirical contrast exposes the absurdity of the power play.

So let me get this straight: an acting attorney general, nominated to be the permanent head of the Justice Department, has signed a three-paragraph letter granting the president, his sons, and his company permanent immunity from ever being audited by the IRS again. That’s the settlement. It looks less like constitutional governance and more like a teenager writing a fake hall pass. The Justice Department doesn’t even run the IRS—the Treasury Department does. The president is explicitly barred by 26 U.S.C. Section 7217 from telling the IRS to stop an audit, directly or indirectly, and an acting AG cannot magically bypass Congress to hand his boss a lifetime “get out of jail free” card. Real immunity from prosecution requires a federal judge to review it and a court to approve it under federal law, not a sidebar deal to end a $10 billion lawsuit that the president filed against the government he was hired to run. They’re telling you it’s the rule of law, but it’s actually the rule of men. We are the builders who remember that the law isn’t a menu you pick from; it’s the roof over everyone’s head, including the king’s.

DEFCON 2 — Aggressive Villainization

When to use: Mixed-to-bad-faith actors who repeat the talking point; forces them to see their own behavior reflected in the anti-authoritarian principles they claim to hold.

The administration calls it a “settlement,” but it’s a self-authored pardon disguised as a civil memo. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has drafted a three-paragraph document that purports to bind the Internal Revenue Service—an agency under the Treasury Department, entirely outside his chain of command—to never audit the president, his sons, or the Trump Organization again. Section 7217 of the tax code specifically forbids the president from making indirect requests to the IRS to halt investigations. Blanche is not ordering; he is abetting a statutory violation. He is granting perpetual immunity from prosecution without the oversight of an Article III judge, bypassing the explicit requirements of 18 U.S.C. Section 6003 and Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11, which demand court approval for any grant of immunity. This isn’t constitutional stewardship; it’s a self-dealing corporate loophole written by a subordinate to shield his principal from a hundred million dollars in tax liability. They invoke the rule of law while actively dismantling the separation of powers to protect their own wallets. We are the builders who hold the line: no executive gets to rewrite the tax code by executive memo.

DEFCON 1 — Nuclear Satire

When to use: Bad-faith actors and performative trolls; deploys grotesque metaphor and absolute villainization of the institution while anchoring every claim in the receipts.

They call it the rule of law, but the Justice Department has just built a sovereign wealth fund for a single family, financed by the suspension of the tax code. The acting attorney general, functioning as a glorified notary public, issues a three-paragraph letter that permanently waives all IRS audits and prosecution for the president, his sons, and his corporate holdings. The IRS sits in the Treasury Department; the Justice Department has zero jurisdiction over its enforcement calendar. The president is expressly forbidden by 26 U.S.C. Section 7217 from asking the IRS to stand down, directly or indirectly, yet the acting AG is stepping in to do the indirect asking that Congress explicitly barred his boss from doing. Immunity in the United States is a judicial grant, anchored in 18 U.S.C. Section 6003 and Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, requiring a federal judge to weigh the public interest; instead, it is being traded in the back room as consideration for dropping a collusive $10 billion lawsuit that the president filed against his own government. It is a closed circuit of self-dealing, a brood of vipers feeding on the very statutes designed to restrain them. We are the builders of the republic, and we do not let the architects of the looters’ charter rewrite the blueprints of justice.

DEFCON 1+ — Prophetic Indictment

When to use: Readers moved by moral authority; invokes the canonical record of moral witness, the Lexicon of Moral Disgust, and scriptural cadence to deliver visceral moral indictment.

The law was meant to be a shelter for the poor and a chain for the proud, but they have turned it into a golden cup, handed to the very men who hold the nation’s purse. An acting attorney general, who swore an oath to the Constitution, pens a three-paragraph memo that forever acquits the president and his house from the scrutiny of the tax collector. Scripture is clear: the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof belongs to no man’s private vault. As 26 U.S.C. Section 7217 plainly forbids, the president is barred from making any indirect demand that the IRS stand down; yet this supposed servant of the statute acts as though the law is his personal ledger, granting immunity without the sanction of a court, bypassing the judicial gatekeepers of 18 U.S.C. Section 6003, all to shield a hundred million damn dollars from the light of public accounting. He folds his hands as if they were not full of blood, ignoring that the tax code is the blood of the commonwealth, pooled from the wages of the laborer and the sweat of the worker. Jeremiah warned us of the prophet’s diagnosis: he has acquired the unblushing face, no longer knowing how to blush when the law is rewritten to serve the king. We are the keepers of the faith who know that charity to the powerful is the greatest cruelty to the powerless; we will not let the whitewashed tomb of executive privilege stand in place of justice.

DEFCON 1++ — Profane Scorched-Earth

When to use: The final release valve; maximal profanity and cathartic venom directed at the apex of power, fusing the prophetic register with the full expletive arsenal.

What the fuck is this, a constitutional republic or a goddamn protection racket run out of a memo pad? The acting attorney general—a man who wants to be the permanent head of the Justice Department—writes a three-paragraph fucking letter that tells the IRS to never, ever audit the president, his two sons, or the Trump Organization again. The IRS is in the Treasury Department! The Justice Department doesn’t even own the goddamn IRS. Congress wrote 26 U.S.C. Section 7217 specifically to stop the president from pulling strings to kill tax audits, directly or through some back-channel indirect bullshit. But Blanche doesn’t care what Congress wrote. He steps in and hands his boss a lifetime “fuck off” card, bypassing every federal judge in the country. Real immunity requires a court order under 18 U.S.C. Section 6003 and Rule 11 of the criminal rules, which means a judge reviews the public interest. These guys don’t have judges. They have backroom deals and a collusive $10 billion lawsuit dropped as a fucking bribe. They are looting the public trust, shielding a hundred million dollars in tax liability, and telling you it’s the rule of law. It’s not the rule of law; it’s the rule of “I have the pen.” They are a pack of hypocrites, breathing forth crime, using the Constitution as a speedbump on their way to the vault. The tax code isn’t a suggestion, it’s the fucking foundation of this country, and we will watch every single penny they steal and we will not let them launder it through a three-paragraph memo. We stand with the builders, the workers, and the taxpayers who don’t get to write their own fucking exemptions, and we will drag this rot into the sun.

The Deeper Breakdown

Who actually benefits from the audit immunity agreement, and by what mechanism? The mechanism is a three-paragraph settlement document drafted by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and appended to the broader resolution of Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. The concentrated beneficiaries are Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization, who are allegedly shielded from all future IRS examinations, tax enforcement, and prosecution “in perpetuity.” Reports indicate there could be upwards of $100 million in tax liability at stake for the Trump enterprises (per 2026 analyses by The New York Times and ProPublica regarding a then-active IRS audit on a Chicago tower write-off)—money that flows straight from the public treasury into private hands when enforcement is unilaterally halted.

The receipts that prove this structural bypass are grounded in federal statute. 26 U.S.C. § 7217 explicitly prohibits the president and any applicable person in the executive branch from requesting that the IRS terminate or conduct an audit. While the statute carves out a narrow exception allowing the attorney general to make a direct request, it explicitly bars the president from making indirect requests—and the IRS operates under the umbrella of the Treasury Department, entirely outside the Justice Department’s chain of command. Blanche lacks the jurisdictional authority to order the IRS to stand down. Furthermore, perpetual immunity from prosecution is a function reserved for the judiciary. Federal law requires that any grant of immunity to compel testimony or resolve criminal liability be approved by a federal court under 18 U.S.C. § 6003, and plea agreements require judicial acceptance under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. This grant of immunity bypasses the judicial branch entirely, functioning as a pure exercise of executive power.

The alternative design—were this policy optimized for its stated rationale of bringing finality to a legal dispute—would have routed the settlement through a federal magistrate or district judge, who would evaluate whether the dismissal of the collusive $10 billion lawsuit provided adequate consideration for waiving future tax investigations, and whether granting such immunity without judicial oversight serves the broader public interest.

One key missing information remains whether the IRS leadership and the Treasury Department will independently honor the Justice Department’s extra-statutory request to permanently halt all audits of the Trump entities, or if the Treasury will treat the DOJ’s memo as a nullity and resume its statutory enforcement obligations.

DEFCON Ladder

When to use: a casual setting; someone mentions the settlement in passing and characterizes it as a standard DOJ housekeeping item.

Tier 1 — Offhand

“I’d call it a routine settlement if the AG actually had authority over the IRS — but he doesn’t. The statute says he can ask, not direct, and even that request can’t be made indirectly on behalf of the president. A three‑paragraph letter on AG letterhead binding the Treasury to drop all future audits of a sitting president? That’s not housekeeping; that’s a backdoor sovereign pronouncement.”

When to use: a friend insists “the law obviously permits the AG to settle cases, so what’s the problem?”

Tier 2 — Mild Pushback

“The law permits the AG to request things. It doesn’t turn him into the IRS commissioner. And it certainly doesn’t let the president do an end‑run around the explicit ban on indirect audit requests. The moment you realize the lawsuit was pulled from a judge who was about to find it collusive, the whole ‘simple settlement’ story collapses — this was a deal with himself, paid for with a phantom lawsuit.”

When to use: debating someone who has read the statutory text and thinks the exemption is a green light.

Tier 3 — Detailed Rebuttal

“Section 7217 exempts the AG from the prohibition on requesting the IRS start or stop an audit. That’s it. It doesn’t give the AG command authority over the IRS, which is in Treasury, not DOJ. It doesn’t let him sign a document that claims to RELEASE, WAIVE, ACQUIT, and FOREVER DISCHARGE a private party from all future examinations — a sweeping immunity grant that no court has reviewed. And the statute is explicit: the president cannot make an indirect request. Blanche, by executing this as Trump’s acting AG to give his boss what he wanted, turned an ‘exemption to request’ into a personal‑protection racket. The fact that the lawsuit was dropped specifically to dodge a judge’s collusion finding makes the whole exercise doubly rotten.”

When to use: they dig in and claim this is the same thing DOJ does in every plea deal, so you’re just targeting Trump.

Tier 4 — Escalated

“Plea deals go before a court. A judge must accept them. Queen‑for‑a‑day agreements don’t shield you from investigation or prosecution; they only limit how your statements can be used — and even then a judge decides the scope of immunity if the government breaches. This ‘immunity’ was cooked up in a three‑paragraph addendum, signed by Blanche alone, with zero judicial review, and it purports to bind not just DOJ but the IRS for all time. That’s not a plea deal; that’s an unaccountable executive decree granting the most powerful person on earth a personal audit amnesty. Pretending it’s standard practice is an insult to anyone who’s ever read Rule 11.”

When to use: the other person says you’re being partisan — that if the law didn’t permit it, the courts will sort it out.

Tier 5 — Forceful

“The whole point of yanking the lawsuit was to keep the courts out. Judge Williams was set to rule that the suit wasn’t a real adversarial case — that Trump controlled both sides. So the ‘courts will sort it out’ line is exactly what the administration is counting on you not to notice. They removed the case from the docket, handed the president an immunity shield signed by his own acting AG, and dared anyone to challenge it. That’s not a legal settlement; that’s a crude power grab dressed up in a three‑paragraph letter. If this were happening under a Democratic president, you’d be screaming constitutional crisis.”

When to use: they accuse you of lawfare and claim the president deserves protection from a politicized IRS. (Bonus tier — restrained profanity)

Tier 6 — Prophetic

“Spare me the ‘politicized IRS’ piety while the man grabs a personal audit‑immunity chit from a DOJ he controls. You don’t fix weaponized government by handing the king a get‑out‑of‑audit‑free card signed by his own sword‑bearer. That isn’t reform; that’s the raw exercise of power for private gain, exactly the kind of shit the statute was written to prevent. Section 7217 says the president can’t even request indirectly, and here he’s got his acting AG issuing a perpetual amnesty for his entire family and business empire. It’s not law; it’s a goddamn palace proclamation.”

When to use: they insist the president is being persecuted and deserves total immunity to do his job. (Apex tier — maximal expletives)

Tier 7 — Apocalyptic

“Fuck the bullshit. The president just bought himself and his kids a lifetime audit‑amnesty from his own DOJ with a bullshit lawsuit he pulled from a judge who was two seconds from calling it a fraud on the court. This isn’t a settlement — it’s a fucking shakedown of the Treasury by a guy who’s been dodging tax scrutiny his whole career. ‘The AG is exempted’ doesn’t mean shit when the entire scheme is an end‑run around the president’s explicit statutory ban on indirect requests. And the kicker? They did it in three paragraphs, no judge, no oversight, no nothing — just ‘FOREVER DISCHARGED.’ This is the corrupt, self‑dealing heart of an asshole who thinks the law is a menu he orders from while the rest of us pay the check.”