Donald Trump, two of his sons, and the Trump Organization filed a federal lawsuit Thursday asking for $10 billion in damages after accusing the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Treasury Department of failing to stop the unauthorized leak of their confidential tax returns from his first term.
The complaint, brought in a Miami federal court, names Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump alongside the Trump Organization as plaintiffs. It alleges that the IRS and Treasury did not properly safeguard highly sensitive tax return information that was later disclosed to the news media, causing “reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment and damage to their business standing,” Associated Press reports.
At the center of the case is Charles Edward Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor who in 2023 pleaded guilty to unlawfully disclosing tax data, including that of Trump and thousands of other wealthy Americans, to outlets such as The New York Times and ProPublica. Littlejohn was sentenced in 2024 to five years in prison for the breach.
The lawsuit says the agencies “willfully, knowingly and/or by gross negligence” failed to prevent Littlejohn’s access and release of the tax returns, violating federal laws that protect taxpayer confidentiality. It contends the data leak also fueled public reporting about Trump’s historical tax payments and financial practices.
The complaint argues that the government had a duty to put in place adequate screening, monitoring, and technical protections to stop unauthorized disclosures and that its failure to do so violated statutory duties. Trump’s legal team says the harm from the leaks justifies the $10 billion in claimed damages.
The suit comes just days after the Treasury Department canceled contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, the consulting firm that employed Littlejohn, after acknowledging its failure to protect taxpayer data. Critics of the lawsuit point out the unusual situation of a sitting president suing agencies within his own administration over privacy and data security failures.
