Mr Demon's
@Demon_Skeith boi Rufus should duke it out with Trump lol Rufus would curb stomp Trump badly lol
Read from CNN:
Donald Trump is working to protect himself from being prosecuted once he leaves office
The deal that President Donald Trump reached with his own administration to set-up an “anti-weaponization fund” for his allies is the latest example of how his second stint in the White House has focused on undermining checks on presidential power and insulating himself from future investigations.
The agreement highlights the new hurdles Trump is erecting that that could stymie probes by congressional Democrats, successor administrations and even authorities outside the federal government.
On several fronts, Trump is dismantling post-Watergate transparency mandates, attacking Congress’ power of the purse, rewarding loyalists accused of committing crimes that support his causes, and assaulting independent agencies and executive branch watchdogs.
Trump has done so by capitalizing on and accelerating an expansion of presidential power embraced by the conservative Supreme Court, and by blowing through norms and political gravity that reined in other presidents, former government attorneys and constitutional scholars told CNN.
When Congress in the 1970s passed constraints on the presidency in response to the scandals of the Richard Nixon administration, courts at the time backed those laws.
“What we’ve now seen is this dramatic pendulum swing in favor of just more executive power that’s consolidated within the president himself, that’s no longer dispersed,” said University of Southern California Gould School of Law Professor Adam Zimmerman. “We also see someone who’s willing to use that power to push that power to the limit.”
The latest gambit – a controversial agreement arising from a legally dubious lawsuit Trump brought against the IRS – is more sweeping in its protections for the president than initially reported. Its language could shield Trump from more than just tax-related probes. And the broad criteria for whom could benefit from the nearly $1.8 billion fund could incentivize individuals to not comply with congressional investigations into the president.
“The announcement of this fund really crystallizes so many trends we’ve seen in this term, which is the president using, corruptly using, the power of the government to punish his enemies and reward his friends, including friends who would break the law on his behalf,” said Gregg Nunziata, executive director of the Society for the Rule of Law, an organization of conservatives who oppose Trump.
A Justice Department spokesperson defended the fund in a statement that said it “was created to specifically hear and redress claims of lawfare and seek accountability for any American who was unfairly targeted for their beliefs.”
“Those who are upset about the Anti-Weaponization Fund should remind themselves that we are in this position because the President’s tax returns were illegally leaked, and previous administrations used their law enforcement agencies to relentlessly persecute their political adversaries,” the spokesperson said.
Immunity that extends beyond tax audits
The tax amnesty the new deal extends to the president, his business and his family was made public with an addendum quietly published the day after the original agreement was announced. In defending it, DOJ officials have described the arrangement as the IRS letting go of past audits of the president in exchange for a dismissal of the $10 billion case Trump brought against the federal government for improper disclosure of his tax returns.
“Every single settlement, both sides give away something,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who signed the deal and who was Trump’s personal lawyer during the Biden-era criminal prosecutions against him, told CNN last week.
The language applies not just to potential claims against Trump brought by IRS or Treasury, but by any agency, though the Justice Department clarified to CNN that the focus is on civil matters, rather than criminal. The Department has also stressed that the agreement covers audits or claims related to Trump conduct that predates the May 19 agreement.
