Trump just put himself above the law with one hidden agreement

Yesterday, we saw what Representative Don Beyer called "the largest single act of grand larceny in American history." The full scope of Trump's $10 billion lawsuit settlement is now clear. Not only will he have a deep pot of money to pay past and future loyalists who carry out his dirty work, he also arranged for the IRS to be forever barred from pursuing any past tax claims against him, his sons, his businesses, and every trust and affiliated company tied to the family. And the corruption goes even deeper. The settlement also bars the entire federal government from investigating him, his family, or his businesses.

Based on the events of 5-19-2026

The Breakdown:

• A one-page addendum quietly added on Tuesday broadened the settlement far beyond what was disclosed the day before
• The federal government is now "FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED" from pursuing "any and all claims" against Trump, his sons, his businesses, and their affiliates
• The language covers "any matters currently pending or that could be pending" before "Defendants or other agencies or departments," not just the IRS
• Tax claims that could have cost Trump more than $100 million are gone
• Acting AG Todd Blanche, Trump's former criminal defense lawyer, signed it on a single page on behalf of the United States
• In Senate testimony, Blanche refused to rule out January 6 defendants applying for the $1.776 billion payout
• Blanche to Senator Collins: the fund is "not limited in any way, scope or form to Jan. 6 or to Jack Smith. There's no limitation on the claims"
• Senator Chris Van Hollen to Blanche: "You are still acting as the president's personal lawyer, not as acting attorney general"
• The Senate voted 50 to 47 to advance Senator Tim Kaine's war powers resolution to force Trump to end the Iran war
• Four Republicans crossed the line: Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, and for the first time, Bill Cassidy
• Cassidy lost his Republican primary over the weekend after Trump endorsed his opponent to punish him
• We are one Republican vote away from Congress reasserting itself on a war launched without its authorization
• Trump took reporters on a tour of the East Wing demolition site and described the ballroom as "a shield that protects everything"
• Six stories deep underground. A military hospital. Research facilities. Glass approximately four inches thick
• The roof will have "massive drone capacity" and act as a "drone port" that "protects all of Washington"
• Why authoritarian leaders build bunkers at the end
• Why sadness is what they are counting on, and what strategic, focused, sustained anger looks like
• Why running on the corruption is the message that wins, what $1.776 billion could do for working Americans
• Why taking back both chambers in November is what makes everything else possible

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*This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

I'm Heather Clainey Reese, and you're listening to Hope for America, where every day I bring you the truth about our politics, our country, and the forces trying to destroy them. Together, we cut through the noise, expose the lies, and stay focused on what really matters, fighting for the survival of our country. Yesterday we saw the largest single act of grand larceny in American history. These are the words of Rep Don Baer from Virginia after he learned about Trump's $10 billion lawsuit settlement earlier this week. And now we know it was as bad as we imagined it to be. Maybe even worse because not only will Trump have a deep pot of money to pay past and future loyalists who carry out his dirty work, he also arranged for the IRS to be forever barred from pursuing any past tax claims against him, his sons, his daughters, his businesses, and every trust and affiliated company tied to the family. Tax claims that could have cost him more than $100 million based off of current reporting. And the corruption goes even deeper because the settlement also included that the entire federal government will be forever barred from investigating him, his family, or his businesses. And the person who signed this deal was none other than the acting attorney general Todd Blanche, who was Trump's personal criminal defense lawyer before he was handed the keys to the Justice Department. The most egregious part of the settlement was in a one-page document that was quietly added on Tuesday and hidden among the other paperwork. In it, an addendum to the original nine-page settlement agreement filed Monday in the case of Trump versus Internal Revenue Service, the Justice Department broadened the scope of the deal far beyond what was disclosed to the public the day before. The addendum was not part of the original announcement, and the language included is almost unbelievable, especially coming from the Justice Department of the United States of America. In the exact words used, the federal government is, and I quote, forever barred and precluded from prosecuting or pursuing any and all claims against Trump, his sons, his businesses, and their affiliates, and of course his daughters and all of those associations. And it goes on to say in any matters currently pending or that could be pending before defendants or other agencies or departments. The part that is beyond troubling is that there are other agencies and departments added in, not just the IRS or the Treasury. The language is broad enough to cover whatever a future Justice Department run by Trump's loyalists decides to read into it. And the man who signed it on a single page on behalf of the United States of America, of course, used to bill Trump by the hour to defend him from federal prosecution. Earlier yesterday, Acting Attorney General Blanche was pressed in his Senate testimony on who exactly could apply for the payout of the settlement. And he refused to rule out January 6th defendants. He told Senator Susan Collins in his own words that the fund is not limited in any way, scope, or form to January 6th or to Jack Smith. There's no limitations on the claims. Senator Chris Van Hollen also spoke and named this for what it really is. This was not a settlement for the betterment of the American people. He told Blanche directly, you are still acting as the president's personal lawyer, not as acting attorney general. This really is an act of larceny, the largest one in our country's history being carried out by the president of the United States and his enablers. That is what we are dealing with. Trump personally protected from more than $100 million in potentially unpaid taxes. Trump personally protected, along with his entire family and every business he owns, from federal investigation of any kind. And of course, that $1776 billion taxpayer dollars set aside to pay his political allies, including people who carried out violence at the Capitol, and enough money to financially reward the next January Sixers. These are the dark days we knew were coming, the ones where they would start carrying out atrocities we couldn't imagine. And they are going to get worse. We are in for the six months that will decide the future of our country and the lives our children and grandchildren will live. That much is true. But these days are not lost days. We are seeing resistance get louder and stronger. Not fast enough, absolutely not at the speed it should be, but it is there and it is happening. His polling shows a deeply unpopular leader, and the enablers are breaking away from him more publicly. We just saw it in the Senate. Two nights ago, after seven failed attempts, the Senate voted 50 to 47 to advanced Senator Tim Kane's war powers resolution to force Trump to end the Iran War. Four Republicans crossed the line. That's Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, and for the first time, Bill Cassidy. Cassidy lost his Republican primary over the weekend after Trump endorsed his opponent specifically to punish him. Cassidy walked into that chamber with nothing left to lose. He cast his vote and gave his statement. While I support the administration's efforts to dismantle Iran's nuclear program, the White House and Pentagon have left Congress in the dark on Operation Epic Fury. The wall cracked. Not all the way, but it cracked. Three Republicans were absent for the vote. And if all three vote no on final passage, the resolution dies on a tie. One more Republican yes vote and it passes. We are one vote away from Congress reasserting itself on a war that was launched without its authorization. We are one vote away. This is what pressure does. Cassidy did not break ranks because he had a change of heart about Trump. He broke ranks because Trump cost him his career. And once a man has nothing left to lose, the calculation changes. This is the same calculation more and more Republicans are going to be forced to make in the coming months. Because Trump is loyal to no one. He has turned on every loyalist who ever crossed him by an inch. And every one of them eventually figured out that the only thing they got for their loyalty was a knife in the back. The ones who are still standing in line behind him are betting that they will be the exception. They will not be. And then there is the bunker. Yesterday Trump took reporters on a tour of the East Wing demolition site, the same East Wing his administration tore down in October after saying it wouldn't. He stood above the construction pit over the noise of drills and hammers, holding poster board mock-ups, and describing the ballroom he is building as, and I quote, a shield that protects everything that's inside, everything that's on top. He called it the safest building ever built, in my opinion. Six stories deep underground, a military hospital, research facilities, meeting rooms, impenetrable steel, glass approximately four inches thick, I should say bulletproof glass. The roof, he said, will have massive drone capacity and act as a drone port so it protects all of Washington. And when ABC News asked the White House what a drone port actually means, the White House offered no additional explanation. He could pretend this is all about the ballroom, but he let the truth slip yesterday. He is building himself an underground fortress. He is fortifying against the consequences of what he is doing to us. This is what so many authoritarian leaders have done at the end. They build bunkers. It is the physical evidence that the leader knows the country he rules is no longer safe because he is the one who made it that way. Yesterday brought out a lot of feelings for so many of us. Watching one man and his enablers pillage our government and our taxpayer dollars in such a pompous manner feels like a physical attack. And then we see so many of our fellow Americans not just okay with it, but then to see them encourage it to a whole other level is betrayal. I have been feeling a very deep and increasing sadness for weeks now, maybe months. And I want to say this as honestly and directly as I can because I think a lot of you might be feeling sad too. We have been carrying this, the destruction and the corruption and the cruelty, the daily betrayals of everything this country was supposed to stand for. The weight of watching it happen and knowing what it means. We've been heartbroken. We have been grieving. And even if we haven't said it specifically until now, we have been in this place together, which is part of how we have made it this far. We have grieved together and we have held hope for each other and for better days together. But sadness is not going to save us. Sadness is what they are counting on. They want us exhausted and paralyzed. They want us too tired to fight back and too overwhelmed, too organized, too broken to vote. As long as we are sad, we are not waging the type of resistance this moment demands of us. And as long as we are quiet, they win. That is the trap. And today I'm telling you, I am done being sad. I'm angry. And I want you to be angry too. Not violent or cruel, not the way that they are angry, but strategic, focused, and sustained against this regime. The kind of anger that names what is happening out loud every single time in every room to every person near us. The kind of anger that refuses to let any of this regime's corruption continue. Future generations need to see us beyond mad. They need to know that when authoritarianism came back into the open in our country, the adults in the room did not look away. And we rose to the occasion. So let me tell you what we do now. We get through the primary season. The beacon of resistance is not coming. The hero on a white horse is not going to step forward and save us. We are the beacon and we need to focus on what is in front of us. We make sure that the strongest possible candidates are on the November ticket. We do not wait. We do not delegate this to someone else. We do the work ourselves. We take back both chambers in November. Not just the House, both. Because both is what makes everything else possible. With both chambers, we get real hearings, subpoenas, and accountability. We demand that Democrats stop being polite. They have one message that wins this, and they have not been using it. The corruption, the money. He took a possible hundred million dollars in taxes that he owed to all of us. He set aside $1.776 billion of our money to pay his political allies. He tried to get taxpayers to fund another billion to build himself a ballroom while so many cannot afford groceries. This is the message. This is the only message. People care about money even when they do not care about other people. Run on the corruption, the theft, and what he is taking from working Americans every single day to enrich himself and protect himself from consequences. Match the moment. Remind Americans that $1.776 billion could do for them. How if Democrats take back Congress, that means slowing down Trump's attack on our country and the Constitution. And it means more money going into taxpayers' pockets and not Trump's or his sycophants. I'm not going to pretend that the next couple of years are going to get any easier or less stressful or less dangerous. Because they are going to be hard. This is the fight of our lifetimes to save our country. But if we do this, we are saving future generations from the same battle. We have made it this far. And Trump's world is falling apart. He is not a well man. He is falling asleep in front of cameras. He is irrational, and his posts on social media show a man with impaired cognitive ability. The walls are closing in on him more and more each day. His downfall is building by the minute, but it is not going to be a straight line. The trajectory is what matters. And the outlook for his presidency is bleak. Four Republicans broke ranks on Iran. He will keep creating his own opposition. And every time he does, more of them will have nothing left to lose. And more of them will come over. We just need to hold the line, get angrier, and stay angry all the way to November. We must refuse to be tired, and we must remember that we are not alone. We are in this together. And that is why I have hope for America. And you should too. And remember, no matter how dark the days get, I will be here every single day. And together, we will always find hope for America. I'll see you tomorrow.