Dem
47
GOP
53
Forget the giant room for Donald Trump's balls, the $TRUMP coin, other crypto ventures, shaking down media outlets, and the other grifts so far. They are small potatoes compared to the one on deck now. Trump has sued the IRS for $10 billion for allegedly leaking his tax returns and he is mad as hell.
If this one ends up as a contested fight in court (hint: it won't), the judge will throw it out in a heartbeat. The IRS didn't intentionally leak anything—although a rogue government contractor probably did, very much against IRS regulations and policy. In any event, how can Trump prove that the leak cost him $10 billion? Is there some deal that would have netted him $10 billion absent the leak that didn't happen due to the leak? Of course not.
Trump doesn't expect to win in court. In fact, he doesn't even want to go to court. What he is now doing is "negotiating"" with the DoJ for a "settlement." These negotiations happen all the time. What is very special now is that Trump is sitting on both sides of the table. His current personal lawyers are facing off against his former personal lawyer, Acting AG Todd Blanche, who is still acting like his personal lawyer. There is nothing to prevent Blanche from saying: "Look, $10 billion is absurd. How about $2 billion?" and then Trump offering to split the difference and "grudgingly" accepting $6 billion as the settlement.
In a normal lawsuit of this kind, the DoJ fights hard to pay as little as possible. In this case, if Blanche knows what is good for him (for example, if he wants a nomination to be the AG), he will offer a deal that will make Trump salivate. Getting the government to pay Trump billions without putting up a real fight would be the greatest payday ever. And it might even hold up in court. It is not even clear who would have standing to challenge a settlement. If it got to court, Blanche could admit that the IRS was at fault, say the government has to compensate Trump for it, and this is the deal they reached. If both parties agree on the amount, would the judge even have the authority to overrule the deal? The political fallout might be enormous, but Trump cares a lot more about money than he does about that, especially since there's never going to be another ballot with HIS name on it. (V)