Trump Stunned by IRS Auditors as Blanche Ghosts Him

0:00Michael Popok:The issue of Todd Blanche giving Donald Trump and his family immunity from tax evasion charges and to give them a free pass against audits is not hypothetical. There are not only audits that have been going on of the Trump family and his family of businesses, more than 400 of them, for more than 15 years, including over$100 million already, already determined by the Internal Revenue Service as Donald Trump owing it in back taxes. But now the employee union for the IRS auditors, oh yeah, the ones that do this for a living, have joined forces and have sued the Department of Justice and Todd Blanche to have a federal judge declare that Todd Blanche's one-way immunity to the Trump family and the family of companies is illegal and that they're being asked to do something that is illegal and a crime.

0:59Michael Popok:Shout out to the National Treasury Employees Union, the NTEU, for having the patriotism and the stick-to-itiveness and the courage to sue the Department of Justice against, I assure you, a lot of personal sacrifice and career sacrifice. I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Touch Network. I may still be traveling, but these stories at the intersection of law and politics don't rest, and so I can't either. Let's talk about the new amended complaint filed in Judge Brinkima's courtroom. She's the one in the Eastern District of Virginia that already blocked the Jan 6th fund, finding it was illegal.

1:45Michael Popok:Now she's being asked the amended lawsuit filed by our friends at Democracy Forward, now joined by the audit union for the Internal Revenue Service to declare the next day, what I call the midnight massacre of our Internal Revenue Service code and our criminal code by Todd Blanche, now the attorney general, that that be declared illegal as well. See, on the 18th of May, Todd Blanchett, to great fanfare, settled illegally a case between Trump and his own Internal Revenue Service and compromised that claim in a way that was improper and downright illegal. And that was declared to be improper and illicit by Judge Williams in Miami.

2:31Michael Popok:Judge Brinkema had already blocked that May 18th settlement agreement and the section of it related to the fund. But the very next day, sort of under cover of darkness, well, everybody was looking at the fund and all the publicity was about the fund and all the senators were up in arms about the fund. And now we're paying people to attack the Capitol. This$1.776 billion fund. That's not what Donald Trump ever cared about. What Donald Trump cared about was the exoneration, the pardon, the free pass of immunity for his prior tax evasion. And that came out on the 19th of May. One paragraph unilaterally signed by one person.

3:16Michael Popok:That guy's named Todd Blanchett. And that was just hours before he was nominated to be the attorney general. Quid pro quo, anybody? Transaction, anybody? We know what the deal was. That was how Todd Blanche got the nomination to begin with. Now, after about two months, it is now in front of a judge, Judge Brinkema. I'm Michael Popak, by the way. Hit the free subscribe button on the Legal AF YouTube channel to roll the odometer to 1.2 million subscribers, won't you? You may be the 1.2 millionth subscriber at this rate. So let me read to you from the Revelations. of the new complaint, the amended complaint.

4:00Michael Popok:First of all, it acknowledges that there are already existing audits against Donald Trump and his family. Certainly Donald Trump and his family of businesses, there's more than 400 of them that exist within the umbrella of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust. It is federal law that requires a president to be audited by the Internal Revenue Service while he's in office. that is what Todd Blanche has also tried to stop. So every year that Donald Trump was president the first time around, he was supposed to have been audited along with the vice president. And then as citizen Trump, as businessman Trump, he had been audited in the past.

4:44Michael Popok:The number one audit exposure that he had that we at least know of is that he took a$75 million write-off against$75 million worth of payments that he made, paying his taxes for what was then his best years of earning income when he ran The Celebrity Apprentice. I mean, he's blown through that now. Instead of the hundreds of millions, we're talking about a couple of billion dollars that he's earned while he was president of the United States, profiting from his own policies. But when he took the write-off to get back the$75 million he had just paid in four prior years, the IRS flagged it, audited it, and determined that that was an improper write-off.

5:30Michael Popok:Had to do with some obsolete assets and how he allocated for them. So that$75, if owed to the Internal Revenue Service, which they say it is, is running with interest, now running at up to$100 million and more. That's what Donald Trump wanted. to be eliminated, that exposure, that payment. And that's what Todd Blanch delivered. I mean, I had Senator Cory Booker on just before the confirmation hearing. And here's our discussion about that very point. Play the clip. And so here's what I promise you, that what we know about is the tip of the iceberg, that there is a gargantuan amount of illegal, illicit, corrupt deals going on as people are seeing themselves having a field day.

6:25We get little glimpses of it. People making money off of Calci that they know Donald Trump is going to do something. They're pacing big bets. We know little glimpses of it, the way that they're trading thousands of stock trades on decisions that the president makes. But I'm telling you, for him, his cabinet and others, the chief negotiators in the Middle East, it is so much more than we know about. And they are trying to meticulously shut off any ability to touch them. They're going to be pardoning every one of these people when they leave. And they're going to try to shield them, not just to not have to pay full taxes, but from even having their records audited.

7:03And know this, they have already eviscerated the team in the IRS that goes after the wealthiest people, The people that audit everyday Americans still there. The help for everyday Americans to pay their taxes, free tax portals, eviscerated. So we have to actually pay these companies to help us pay our taxes. But for the wealthiest of people who get audited, have very complicated returns, they're eviscerating that. They are not just thinking about the next two and a half years. They are thinking about setting themselves up to have epic empires of wealth never before considered. And that's why Trump is pardoning people that then go into business with him.

7:45That's why Trump is trying to obscure the rule of law to make sure he is safely out of office with more wealth than is ever conceivable even to our founders.

7:57Michael Popok:This episode is brought to you by IQ Bar, our exclusive snack, hydration, and coffee sponsor. IQ Bar protein bars, IQ Mix hydration mixes, and IQ Joe mushroom coffees are the delicious, low-sugar brain and body fuel you need to win your day. I like having convenient, better-for-you options on hand, and IQ Bar makes that easy. The Ultimate Sampler Pack is a great way to try everything. You get nine IQ Bars, eight IQ Mix sticks, and four IQ Joe sticks. Plus all IQ Bar products are clean label certified and entirely free from gluten, dairy, soy, GMOs, and artificial ingredients. With over 20 ,000 five-star reviews and counting, more people than ever are fueling their busy lifestyles with IQ Bar's brain and body boosting bars, hydration mixes, and mushroom coffees.

8:47Michael Popok:Their ultimate sampler pack includes all three. And right now, IQ Bar is offering our special podcast listeners 20 % off all IQ Bar products, including the Ultimate Sampler Pack, plus free shipping. To get your 20 % off, text LEGALAF to 64000. Text LEGALAF to 64000. One more time. That's LEGALAF to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. So now we fast forward to the lawsuit. Originally filed by Democracy Forward on behalf of three entities, three people. One was a former U.S. attorney, assistant U.S. attorney. One is an organization devoted to reproductive rights. And the third is the city of New Haven, now joined by the union.

9:34Michael Popok:And in the union filing, we know that there's ongoing audits going on that have been quashed by Todd Blanche. Let me read to you from the complaint. As for the immunity order, the president of the United States and his family are obligated to pay taxes owed, just like every taxpayer. And per the IRS's own policy, the IRS is required to audit the president each year he is in office. But the immunity order, this was signed by Blanche, prevents the IRS from auditing the president's tax returns and from recovering any underpaid taxes. Under the immunity order, career IRS employees will be forced to terminate ongoing audits of the president and his businesses, giving the president a lucrative and unconstitutional emolument.

10:19Michael Popok:We have an emoluments clause of the Constitution that prevents the president, other than getting his paycheck, from getting any other benefit granted to him by Congress, by his administration, or in any other way. It's called the domestic emoluments clause. It also says, paragraph 7, the immunity order violates 26 United States Code Section 7217, and that's a criminal statute which prohibits the president from asking the IRS, either directly or indirectly, to end audits of a particular taxpayer, including the president's audits. That's a violation. That's now before the judge. Paragraph 11.

11:27Michael Popok:States. It says in 135, besides being legally unauthorized, the immunity order will force IRS employees to terminate any ongoing tax examinations for Trump, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., the Trump organization, the Trump family, those jointly filing with the Trump family, an undefined number of related or affiliated individuals or parties that include trust, parents, sister, or related companies. Paragraph 136, the immunity order bars the IRS from opening any audits of the same group for all tax returns filed before May 18th of 2026. It also extends to the termination of existing audits or opening new audits.

12:09Michael Popok:Paragraph 137, it also covers not just tax audits and forgiveness of tax liability, but also any non-tax issues. Matters currently pending before the Treasury or the IRS or any other agency or department, that means the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Defense. Now, what Judge Brinkema has said is, I'm going to take a long look at this. Now, Trump's side has filed a motion to dismiss, But very interesting here, Todd Blanche has gone into hiding. Now, I don't know if it's because there's still an ethics department within the Department of Justice.

12:49Michael Popok:I didn't think there was. But he is no longer on the pleadings being filed by the Department of Justice. Now when people file motions, they file it in the name of Stan Woodward, the number two in the Department of Justice. Really weird. In fact, I've never seen it. In 35 years of my practice, and I've talked to people going back longer, when the Department of Justice files something in court, it's always under the Attorney General of the United States by an Assistant Attorney General or Assistant U.S. Attorney or U.S. Attorney. That's how that's listed. But look at this. We'll put it up on the screen.

13:27Michael Popok:Look at this current filing. Stan Woodward is the top line attorney. Now, Todd Blanche is the one that signed everything. Todd Blanche is the one that Judge Brinkema is going to want to hear from. Has he sidelined himself? Has he gone into hiding? We'll have to get to the bottom of that. Now, Judge Brinkema wants briefing on the motion to dismiss filed by the Department of Justice, and she wants a hearing in the middle of September. She'll then decide both on the motion to dismiss and on the preliminary injunction temporary restraining order filed by Democracy Forward, our friends there, and to determine whether this May 19th immunity order is valid or not, or unconstitutional or not.

14:18Michael Popok:I believe it is. Here's a clip from Sky Perryman of Democracy Forward talking to me about the new amendment. Play the clip. It goes to our brave clients that have been in this case from the beginning, the Floyd case. We have amended the complaint and we've continued to add allegations about the slush fund because, as we know, every time Donald Trump opens his mouth, he talks more about how the slush fund needs to exist. And so we are still challenging the slush fund. But we also added new brave plaintiffs, the National Employees Treasury Union or the National Treasury Employees Union, NTEU, which has employees as members who work at the IRS.

14:57And those employees are essentially alleging that what this agreement that Blanche and Trump and the Trump organization are engaged in to provide Donald Trump and his associates, his family, his organization IRS immunity conscripts them into the violation of law and is unlawful and is an unconstitutional emolument. It's giving the president a gift that, you know, that it's an unconstitutional emolument. So those are the claims with respect to the IRS immunity provision that the amended complaint, if you if you I know your listeners always go to our actual court documents. You guys love to feature the actual court documents.

15:37There is tremendous, great history in there about why there are provisions of our tax code that prevent exactly what this agreement did, including, by the way, in a circumstance where in the Watergate era, in the Nixon era, he was seeking to weaponize the IRS against people and to use also the IRS to favor his friends. And Congress took action there to add additional protections, which is one of the many legal bases.

16:04Michael Popok:So we'll continue to follow it. A lot of activity between now and the middle of September here on the Midas Touch Network and, of course, over on Legal AF YouTube channel. Take a minute, hit the free subscribe button over there. And if you want to read the amended complaint, you can find it on Legal AF Substack under filings for our paid members. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack.

16:37Michael Popok:You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Where? Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe. gotcha