Podcaster Joe Rogan has mocked the Department of Justice for forever excusing President Donald Trump and his family from IRS audits on past tax returns. “That is so crazy,” Rogan said on an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience released Monday, reacting to a settlement reached through the DOJ for a $10 billion lawsuit filed by Trump, his children and the Trump Organization against the IRS.
The lawsuit centred on a leak of the president’s tax records to news outlets during his first term. The DOJ promised that the federal government would not investigate potential claims against Trump, his family or his companies over unpaid taxes, according to a one-page document signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and dated May 19.
Rogan likened the situation to someone wrongfully accused of murder being immune from future murder charges. “Imagine somebody accused you of murder. And it turns out you weren't guilty of that murder, and then you sue them, and you go, ‘You can never prosecute me for murder again.’ And then you just go straight Uday Hussein,” he said, referring to the eldest son of the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Rogan endorsed Trump in the 2024 election and has been seen being friendly to the president, but has also broken with him on several issues, including the administration’s handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein and the war against Iran launched at the end of February. “It just seems so insane based on what he ran on,” Rogan said of the Iran war in March.
The one-page document states that the IRS is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing “examinations” into Trump and “related or affiliated individuals,” including his family, trusts and companies, for tax returns filed before the settlement’s effective date. A Justice Department spokesperson said the agreement applies only to existing audits, not future ones.
Also included in the settlement is what critics call Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion “slush fund” — a reserve that could compensate the president’s allies who believe they were unfairly prosecuted, including pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
