During a recent episode of his podcast, Joe Rogan said the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) settlement with the IRS over the leak of President Donald Trump’s tax returns was “so crazy.”
His comments came shortly after his segment on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s order shielding Trump, his family and his companies from certain past or pending IRS examinations.
“Imagine somebody accuses 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,’” Rogan told comedian and actor Tom Segura on Monday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience.
Rogan, despite having endorsed Trump in 2024, has at times criticized the president on a range of issues.
What To Know
Rogan compared the behavior behind the Trump directive to that of Uday Hussein, son of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whose name became synonymous with corruption, brutality and abuse of political power under an authoritarian regime, with the podcast host saying, “Then you just go straight Uday Hussein. That’s nuts.”
While Rogan supported Trump’s election and influenced the president’s executive order on the psychedelic drug ibogaine, he has at times broken with the president and been outspoken on certain GOP policies. He has been most vocal against Trump over the war in Iran, which he has condemned in blunt terms on his podcast, as well as criticism of federal immigration enforcement operations.
The one‑page directive, signed by Blanche and posted on the DOJ’s website, declares government agencies “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing claims tied to the tax returns filed before the settlement’s effective date.
The expansion goes well beyond the nine‑page agreement unveiled Monday, which created a nearly $1.8 billion Anti‑Weaponization Fund but made no mention of Trump’s long‑running disputes with the IRS. The new order effectively folds those audits into the settlement, granting a sweeping release from federal tax liability for Trump and a wide circle of related individuals, trusts and business entities.
The announcement came just hours after Trump withdrew his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. In exchange for dropping the case, Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as the Trump Organization, will receive a formal apology from the government—but no direct payout. The president also agreed to abandon separate claims seeking compensation for the FBI’s 2022 search of Mar‑a‑Lago and the investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia.
Why Did Trump Sue the IRS?
Trump sued the IRS and the U.S. Treasury Department for $10 billion, alleging the agencies failed to protect his confidential tax information. The lawsuit stemmed from the actions of Charles Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor who admitted to leaking Trump’s tax returns—along with those of thousands of wealthy Americans—to news organizations. Littlejohn later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison, but Trump argued that the government bore responsibility for failing to prevent the breach.
Trump, his two oldest sons and the Trump Organization claimed the unauthorized disclosures caused ongoing harm, asserting that each view of a published article containing the leaked data constituted a separate statutory violation. The suit sought massive damages and accused federal agencies of negligence in safeguarding sensitive taxpayer information. The case never reached a courtroom fight as Trump withdrew the lawsuit after reaching an agreement with the DOJ, which created the $1.776 billion Anti‑Weaponization Fund intended to compensate people who say they were improperly targeted by the government.
Not all Trump allies are in favor of the plan, and Democrats and government watchdogs have called the arrangement “corrupt” and unprecedented, warning it could channel taxpayer funds to Trump allies while inviting questionable claims of political persecution.
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