Committee member urges bipartisan probe into Treasury over Trump tax settlement, raises Epstein records concerns

A committee member urged the Senate Committee on Finance to open a bipartisan investigation into a recent settlement between the Treasury Department and Donald Trump, saying the deal appears to have "set the new high water mark for public corruption." The lawmaker told colleagues the hearing was the "first opportunity for Congress to examine it."

The member said Trump sued his own administration for $10,000,000,000 over a tax return leak and then "rushed a settlement for personal gain," alleging the settlement included terms that benefit Trump directly. "Todd Blanche let Trump Trump off the hook for potentially a $100,000,000 in back taxes by canceling what's reported to be a long running dispute with the IRS," the committee member said, adding that the move amounted to effectively shielding the Trump family and the Trump Organization from tax crime exposure. "As of right now, everybody in America is subject to audit except the Trump family," the member said.

The speaker also criticized the Senate Republican leader's comment that the settlement was "business as usual," calling that assessment "totally wrong" and citing, according to the transcript, "2 former IRS commissioners" who described the deal as "completely without precedent." The member said Treasury officials were involved "from beginning to end," that Treasury was both a defendant and a negotiator in the underlying lawsuit, and asserted that Treasury's top lawyer had resigned in objection to the settlement. The member told the committee: "Secretary Besson owes the committee an explanation of what the Treasury knows about the dirty settlement."

Placing the dispute in broader context, the lawmaker tied the settlement to public economic concerns, saying constituents had reported rising inflation and falling wage growth at recent town halls. The committee member quoted a Treasury interview in which the transcript records the Treasury official saying price increases caused by the Iran war amounted to "less than $200 in extra gasoline costs," and quoted President Trump as saying he was "not even a little bit" concerned about Americans' finances. The member said those remarks illustrated a broader dismissiveness toward struggling families.

Separately, the committee member alleged a year-and-a-half-long denial of committee access to a large file of Jeffrey Epstein's financial records, calling that matter serious enough to merit its own hearing. "It's the only one to follow the money in the Epstein situation, and yet there's been a denial of access to committee investigators and lying in public about their significance," the member said, and asked the Senate to probe who "paid Epstein for girls."

The committee member closed by urging a broad inquiry into the Treasury's role in the settlement and into blocked access to the Epstein materials, and said they looked forward to questions and answers from colleagues. No formal motions or votes were recorded in the transcript.