US justice department ‘forever’ bars IRS from auditing Trump’s past tax returns

What happened

According to The Guardian’s source item, US justice department ‘forever’ bars IRS from auditing Trump’s past tax returns, 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. Continue reading…

Context

The development sits in VINI’s Culture file for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-05-19T19:25:27+00:00.

What to watch

Open questions include whether primary sources issue follow-up statements, whether local or market impacts become clearer, and whether additional reporting changes the timeline or adds material context.

Source

Primary source: US justice department ‘forever’ bars IRS from auditing Trump’s past tax returns via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.