U.S. President Donald Trump has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Treasury Department over the alleged disclosure of his tax returns to the media in 2019 and 2020.
Trump filed the suit alongside his two eldest sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., as well as the Trump Organization. The IRS and the Treasury Department are named as defendants in the complaint.
According to the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, the agencies failed to take “mandatory precautions” to prevent a former IRS contractor, Charles Littlejohn, from leaking their tax information to what the suit describes as “leftist media outlets,” including The New York Times and ProPublica.
The plaintiffs claim the disclosures caused “significant and irreparable harm” to their reputations and financial interests. They also indicated they may seek punitive damages, alleging that the leaks were either willful or the result of gross negligence.
The lawsuit comes just days after the Treasury Department announced it was terminating contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, the government consulting firm that employed Littlejohn while he was working with the IRS.
Federal prosecutors have said Littlejohn sought his role with the intention of accessing and disclosing confidential tax records. His actions ultimately led to a series of investigative reports by The New York Times and ProPublica detailing Trump’s finances.
While federal law allows individuals to sue over unauthorized tax disclosures, such cases must be filed within a two-year time limit. The New York Times began publishing stories based on the leaked material as early as 2020, but the Trump family argues they were unaware that the source was the IRS until receiving formal notice from the Treasury Department much later.
The lawsuit states that the plaintiffs had no reason to suspect an unauthorized disclosure at the time, noting that media reports did not identify the IRS as the source and that an internal investigation by the IRS Commissioner initially concluded the leak did not originate from the agency.
The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Trump is being represented by his personal legal team, led by attorney Alex Britto, setting up a legal battle against his own administration’s Justice Department.
