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WASHINGTON — <\/span>Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent refused to say Wednesday whether President Donald Trump and his family would still get immunity from IRS audits after the administration abandoned plans<\/a> for a $1.776 billion compensation fund that would have benefited the president\u2019s allies.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s continuing litigation, and I\u2019m unable to comment on ongoing litigation,\u201d Bessent told lawmakers at the Senate Finance Committee hearing.<\/p>\n It was a frustrating answer for Democratic lawmakers looking to get answers from Bessent at a hearing ostensibly focused on the Treasury Department\u2019s budget and came a day after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche seemed to indicate that the portion of the settlement dealing with the IRS audit immunity would still be in effect for the Republican president.<\/p>\n After several failed attempts to get Bessent to answer, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said, \u201cIt\u2019s been very clear you\u2019re dodging this and you\u2019re trying to use it as an excuse. It\u2019s just outrageous on behalf of the American public.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House referred the Associated Press to Secretary Bessent’s comments in response to an inquiry about the status of the settlement. In the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump did not confirm whether the compensation fund had been scrapped or was simply on hold. \u201cI\u2019d have to ask the lawyers, I don\u2019t know,” he told reporters. \u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, it was a beautiful thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The administration decided to scrap plans for the compensation fund, which could have included payouts to participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol<\/a>, after bipartisan outrage and a fierce political backlash<\/a> that threatened to stall key elements of the White House agenda. Still, the status of the IRS immunity deal as part of the controversial settlement crafted to resolve Trump\u2019s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS<\/a> remained unclear, though Blanche said Tuesday that \u201cnothing has changed\u201d in that regard.<\/p>\n Last week, a federal judge in Florida overseeing Trump\u2019s lawsuit against the IRS, who had initially dismissed the case, reopened the case and ordered the president\u2019s attorneys to respond to allegations that Trump abandoned his claims to avoid the court\u2019s scrutiny of the deal.<\/p>\n When she initially dismissed the case, Kathleen Williams, the judge handling the lawsuit, admonished the Justice Department for a lack of transparency and said no agency \u201csubmitted any settlement documents nor filed any documents ensuring that the settlement was appropriate where there was an outstanding question as to whether an actual case or controversy existed.\u201d<\/p>\n Matt Platkin, a former New Jersey attorney general now at the law firm Platkin LLP, which is representing lawmakers and judges challenging the settlement agreement, called it \u201cone of the greatest scams in American history.\u201d<\/p>\n He told The Associated Press that Blanche\u2019s testimony on Tuesday over plans to scrap the weaponization fund and grant Trump audit immunity \u201cunderscores the need for the court to continue its inquiry in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawmakers on Wednesday tried to grill Bessent on the agreement without success.<\/p>\n \u201cSecretary Bessent owes the committee an explanation of what the Treasury knows about the dirty settlement. That\u2019s because his department was involved from beginning to end,\u201d said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.<\/p>\n Wyden asked Bessent: \u201cDoes the IRS audit immunity given to Trump, his family, and his businesses still stand?\u201d<\/p>\n Bessent declined to answer, citing the unresolved legal dispute. <\/p>\n If audits and examinations into the president’s taxes were thrown out under the settlement, an untold figure could be wiped from his bill to the federal tax collector. <\/p>\n