Fuck This News Cycle: IRS Settlement
The IRS settlement, where Trump settled with himself while not allowing a judge to review the settlement agreement (by dropping the case and then just announcing there was a settlement), was a flash-bang in the news cycle. It was everywhere. And now, it's not.
There were two main provisions of this so-called settlement. What received the most attention was the slush fund. It was such blatant self-dealing. Almost 2 billion dollars would be doled out, allegedly to J6 insurrectionists, but with zero transparency so no one would actually know if the funds went to those criminals or the ones running the government like Trump himself. It just so happened that when organizations started suing and filing FOIA requests to force transparency, the administration dropped the fund all together.
I think they always knew how explosive the slush fund would be. And I think it may have been intentional; call it a win-win—either Trump and his friends get to rob the treasury of billions of dollars, or they don't (yet) and the story runs cover for the other half of the deal. The DOJ has permanently banned the IRS from investigating Trump or his family for tax crimes ever again. Even after Trump leaves office, (or better yet, dies) he and his family will be wholly exempt from following US tax law in any capacity. This has already largely been the case. Rich people commit tax fraud and get away with it all too often. But to have this written in an agreement between the DOJ and the IRS is the pinnacle of corruption.
And because the slush fund was dropped, the IRS settlement scandal seems to have blown over. No one is talking about the other half of the deal. Never mind the blow to the separation of powers. Who cares about the latest example of exorbitant corruption among the most corrupt administration in American history? On to the next thing.