This column is being republished with permission from its original home on Substack. For more from David Rothkopf, subscribe here.

Let us start with the plain facts, please.

The president of the United States has not reached a settlement with the United States government regarding the IRS release of his files. There was no case to be settled. A judge was about to throw it out. The case they asserted existed was meritless. The president was effectively on both sides of the issue, seeking to use a fabricated claim of harm as leverage in a negotiation with himself.

Nor is an element of that settlement an agreement between the president and the Department of Justice to refrain from every prosecuting the president for any issue pertaining to his taxes, those of his family and those of their businesses.

They assert there is such an agreement. But that “agreement” is wholly illegal. Asserting that there is such an agreement, that it is enforceable, and then enforcing it is an act of self-dealing and of violating the oaths of office of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Trump himself.

The elements reported by news outlets as “terms” of a “deal” are not either. They are crimes being committed in service of still greater crimes.

Trump and Blanche are colluding to steal taxpayer dollars, misappropriate funds in contravention of the Constitution, lie that they are seeking to address wrongs of “weaponization” of legal processes against Trump allies that did not exist, even as they are conspiring to cover up possible tax crimes and to relieve the president of his legal obligations to pay his fair share of taxes as dictated by the tax code.

With every discussion that misrepresents what is happening as even something remotely resembling normal or legitimate government activity, their crimes move closer to being a success.

With every use of terms to describe these actions as “unusual,” “unorthodox,” or “unprecedented,” the acts, the public larceny and the abuse of power involved is minimized, normalized, and blurred, making it more likely that Trump and Blanche will succeed… and should they do so, that they will seek to commit more and greater such crimes.

How do we know? Department of Justice and other agencies of the U.S. government.

Just because Trump has the audacity to commit crimes in plain sight does not mean we should minimize them or shrug them off.

Just because Trump thinks he has immunity or the power of the pardon does not mean he does. Those powers can and must be challenged. State courts can and must pursue their own rights, which exist beyond the scope of presidential powers. But those who would seek to defend the rule of law in the United States must not stop there.

The Supreme Court has noted limitations on the president’s “immunity.” While their decision was wrong and must be overturned by a new court, by congressional action or by Constitutional amendment at some point, all that will take many years—if it happens at all.

In the meantime, prosecutors and lawyers........

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