Trump sues his own IRS, Treasury for massive $10bn

United States President Donald Trump has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Treasury Department, accusing the agencies of failing to protect his confidential tax records which were leaked to the media.

The suit, filed on Thursday in a Florida federal court, lists Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as the Trump Organization, as plaintiffs.

According to the court filing, the unauthorised disclosure of Trump’s tax information between 2018 and 2020 caused “reputational and financial harm,” public embarrassment, and damaged the business interests and public standing of the President and his family.

The lawsuit stems from the actions of Charles Edward Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor who worked with Booz Allen Hamilton, a defence and national security technology firm.

Littlejohn was sentenced in 2024 to five years in prison after pleading guilty to illegally downloading and leaking years of Trump’s tax records to media organisations, including The New York Times.

The leaked records formed the basis of a 2020 investigation which reported that Trump paid no federal income tax in 10 of the 15 years before he became president.

Court documents show that Littlejohn later shared tax information belonging to other ultra-wealthy Americans with investigative outlet ProPublica, in what prosecutors said was a clear violation of IRS Code 6103, one of the strictest confidentiality laws in U.S. federal statutes.

Trump’s suit argues that the disclosures unfairly portrayed him and his businesses in a false light and negatively affected his political support during the 2020 presidential election.

The President had previously refused to release his tax returns during the 2016 campaign, citing an ongoing audit, a claim disputed at the time by the IRS, which said audits do not prevent voluntary disclosure.

Six years of Trump’s tax returns were eventually released in 2022 by the then-Democrat-controlled House Ways and Means Committee following a prolonged legal battle.

The lawsuit comes days after the U.S. Treasury Department announced it had terminated its contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, following Littlejohn’s conviction over the mass leak of sensitive taxpayer data.