President Donald Trump, his two eldest sons, and his family business have filed a lawsuit against the US Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, seeking at least $10 billion in damages over the unauthorized disclosure of their confidential tax information.
The suit was filed on Thursday in federal court in Miami by Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization.
The complaint alleges that the IRS and Treasury failed to safeguard tax return information that was later leaked to the press, potentially exposing US taxpayers to a large financial liability.
The case revives a politically sensitive episode that surfaced weeks before the 2020 presidential election, when the New York Times published reporting based on leaked IRS data detailing Trump’s tax affairs.
The lawsuit comes as Trump, now a sitting president, continues to pursue a series of legal actions against both private institutions and government entities.
Alleged failure to protect taxpayer data
At the center of the case is former IRS contractor Charles “Chaz” Littlejohn, who pleaded guilty to stealing tax data and leaking it to the New York Times and ProPublica.
Littlejohn admitted to accessing and disclosing Trump’s tax returns, as well as records belonging to thousands of other wealthy Americans, including Ken Griffin, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos.
Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison in January 2024.
His lawyer told the sentencing court that he acted out of a “deep, moral belief” that Americans had a right to the information.
In the lawsuit, Trump’s lawyer Alejandro Brito said the IRS and Treasury “had a duty to safeguard and protect plaintiffs’ confidential tax returns and related tax return information from such unauthorized inspection and public disclosure.”
He added: “Accordingly, defendants were obligated to have appropriate technical, employee screening, security, and monitoring systems to prevent Littlejohn’s unlawful conduct.”
Treasury has said that 406,000 taxpayers were affected by the breach, which occurred between 2018 and 2020.
Earlier this week, the department canceled $21 million in contracts with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, where Littlejohn had worked, alleging failures to protect taxpayer data.
Booz Allen said it supported the investigation and noted that Littlejohn’s criminal conduct occurred on government systems, not its own.
Political and legal implications
The lawsuit places Trump in an unusual position: a sitting president suing agencies within the government he leads.
The case could ultimately be overseen by the Justice Department, whose officials may decide whether to seek a settlement and for what amount.
The complaint also revisits the reporting that followed the 2020 New York Times investigation, which said Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 and no income taxes in 10 of the previous 15 years due to large losses.
At the time, Trump dismissed the reporting as “totally fake news.”
The suit alleges that the disclosures caused reputational and financial harm.
It says: “Defendants have caused Plaintiffs reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump, and the other Plaintiffs’ public standing.”
The media organizations involved are not accused of wrongdoing.
A growing list of claims
The case adds to a widening slate of lawsuits brought by Trump and his business interests.
Over the past year, he has sued banks including JPMorgan Chase and Capital One, as well as media outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the BBC.
Total damages sought across all cases now exceed $50 billion. Some suits against broadcasters ABC and CBS have already settled for a combined $31 million.
Trump has also indicated he is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from the Justice Department over past investigations, describing the situation as negotiating with his own administration.
He has said he would not personally keep any settlement funds, stating: “As I get money from our country, I’ll do something nice with it, like give it to charity or give it to the White House while we restore the White House.”
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