CNN annotated each page of the agreement between Trump and his government. Here’s what it means
By Devan Cole and Curt Merrill, CNN
Published May 20, 2026
The Trump administration has created a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who say they were unfairly targeted by previous administrations.
The so-called Anti-Weaponization Fund was born out of a settlement reached between the Internal Revenue Service and Trump, one of his adult sons and the Trump Organization in a lawsuit they brought in January over the unauthorized disclosure of Trump’s tax information years ago.
As part of that deal reached by Trump and the Executive Branch he controls, the federal government has also agreed to not bring claims against the president, his family or businesses for past tax issues.
Critics have slammed the moves, describing the new fund as a slush fund for Trump’s allies and saying the tax agreement amounts to naked political corruption. Legal experts CNN spoke with appeared torn over whether anyone opposed to the new fund would have the ability to frustrate it through court challenges. Already, at least one lawsuit seeking to halt implementation of the fund has been filed in federal court in Washington, DC.
An annotated version of three documents laying out the deals is below.
This is the official settlement reached by Donald Trump, Eric Trump and The Trump Organization with the Internal Revenue Service.
The underlying lawsuit brought in Miami in January had to do with the unauthorized disclosure of tax documents by Charles Littlejohn, an IRS contractor, in 2019 and 2020. Littlejohn was later prosecuted for his actions.
Trump was separately seeking over $230 million as compensation for federal investigations brought against him during his first term and the previous administration. Those claims were made through administrative channels and, under this settlement, must be withdrawn by June 15.
The settlement ties alleged government wrongdoing against Trump to other actions taken during the Biden administration that have become cause célèbre among conservatives in recent years, including a memo released in 2021 by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland addressing the “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” levied at schools.
The federal government will issue a formal apology to Trump, Eric Trump and The Trump Organization, but they are barred from receiving any money from the newly established fund.
The three plaintiffs agreed to never again pursue claims similar to the ones brought in the Florida case or through the administrative channels.
This part requires the attorney general to issue an order formally creating a fund and sketching out how some of it will function.
The fund will be run by a commission whose members are chosen by Trump’s attorney general and who can be fired by the president at any time. One of the five members will be chosen “in consultation” with Congress, though it’s unclear what that kind of counsel will look like and how closely the attorney general will adhere to it.
The commissioners will set their own rules and regulations for how claims are assessed. But they have the option of keeping those policies shielded from public view.
Four times a year, the commissioners overseeing the fund must provide a private, written report to the attorney general that contains the names of individuals who have received money from the fund, as well as the amount given to each person. The Justice Department or a third-party contracted by it can audit the work of the commission to determine if any fraud has occurred. The reports do not have to be made public.
The fund will process claims up until the month before Trump’s term in office ends. Any remaining balance will be given back to the federal government.
People who receive compensation from the fund will still have to pay taxes on the money.
Someone who accepts payment from the fund is barred from pursuing other claims against the government over the same alleged conduct for which they’re getting compensated.
To be eligible for money from the fund, an individual must present to the commission a “legal claim” that they were unfairly targeted by previous administrations. The document does not say what that needs to entail.
Decisions made by the commission with regard to claims submitted to it are largely unappealable.
The settlement could be tweaked at a later time if all the parties (i.e. Trump, his family and company and federal agencies he controls) agree to changes.
The settlement contains what’s called a “severability provision.” It ensures that if a court strikes down just one part of the agreement, but not the whole thing, the other parts won’t fall on their own.
Under the agreement, Trump, Eric Trump and The Trump Organization agreed to dismiss the underlying case. However, since the case was dismissed before the settlement was submitted to or accepted by a judge, there is no official judicial oversight of it.
These are lawyers for Trump who signed the agreement on his behalf.
This is a top Justice Department official who signed the agreement on behalf of the federal agencies that were defendants in the case. He previously represented various January 6 defendants.
This is a high-ranking IRS official serving in a new role created by the Trump administration last year. Bisignano also runs the Social Security Administration.
This order issued by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on May 18 officially established the “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
This is the first official mention of the amount of money the fund will contain. The figure is a nod to the country’s founding in 1776.
Commissioners who will help dole out the money will not get paid for their work.
Here, Blanche is referring to the fact that the $1,776,000,000 is being drawn from a pot of taxpayer money set aside by Congress to pay settlements reached by the federal government.
Blanche has repeatedly claimed that the new fund mirrors one set up during the Obama administration to compensate Native American farmers after claims of discrimination by the government were brought in court. But legal experts have pointed out key differences between the two cases – chief among them, the fact that the earlier settlement was reviewed and approved by a judge.
Blanche, who stepped in as acting attorney general in March after Pam Bondi was fired, had previously represented Trump in two cases when he was out of office. He has actively steered the Justice Department to go after Trump and Republican political foes, such as James Comey and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Blanche was previously advised to recuse himself from matters involving Trump in his personal capacity, CNN has reported.
New settlement provisions bar future IRS probes
One day after the fund was announced, the Justice Department quietly released additional settlement terms that bar the IRS from investigating Trump, his family or businesses for past tax issues and prevents the agency from going after them for any potential problems.
Under this provision of the settlement, the federal government is “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED” from prosecuting or pursuing “claims” or “examinations” arising from matters pending before the IRS, including “tax returns” filed by Trump before the agreement was reached. The language applies not just to Trump, but to his family, trusts, companies and other affiliates.
It’s not clear how an audit of whether Trump or his businesses were complying with tax law would relate to his claims in the underlying lawsuit that the IRS violated federal privacy law by not properly safeguarding his tax documents from disclosure by Littlejohn. And because it is a deal involving just the federal government, it won’t stop states from conducting their own probes.
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