Donald Trump is suing the U.S. Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service for $10 billion after a rogue employee leaked the president’s tax returns.
Trump, alongside his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump and the Trump Organization, filed a lawsuit in Miami federal court on Thursday, alleging the agencies failed to prevent the disclosure of personal financial information by former IRS contractor Charles “Chaz” Littlejohn.
If successful, American taxpayers would ultimately be on the hook to cover the mammoth 11-figure damages claim against Trump’s own government.
Littlejohn is currently serving a five-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to stealing Trump’s tax data and leaking it to The New York Times. He also leaked tax returns and other sensitive financial information belonging to thousands of wealthy individuals—including billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk—to ProPublica.
The Times used information from Littlejohn to publish a damning assessment of Trump’s finances in September 2020, reporting that Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 and paid no income tax in several other years because he reported losing far more money than he earned.
“The IRS wrongly allowed a rogue, politically motivated employee to leak private and confidential information about President Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization to The New York Times, ProPublica, and other left-wing news outlets, which was then illegally released to millions of people,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told CNBC.
“President Trump continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable.”
The lawsuit alleges that the Trumps suffered “embarrassment” and that their family business was “unfairly tarnished” as a result of reporting based on the leaked tax returns.
“Defendants’ failures have caused significant and irreparable harm to Plaintiffs, their reputations, and their substantial financial interests,” Trump’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, wrote in the suit.
As noted by Bloomberg Tax, Trump loyalists at the Department of Justice—an agency now more than willing to allow the president to pursue a revenge tour against his adversaries—could decide whether to settle the case and on what terms.
Last October, Trump demanded that the DOJ pay him roughly $230 million in compensation over the investigation into alleged Russian collusion during the 2016 election and the 2022 FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago home over classified documents. Any settlement in that case could also be approved by Trump allies now installed at the department.
Earlier this month, Trump’s 2024 campaign manager Chris LaCivita dropped a lawsuit against the Daily Beast that he had filed over an article reporting that his consulting firm had been paid millions of dollars by the campaign through a variety of contracts.
LaCivita withdrew the suit without producing any discovery documents, including his tax returns. The Beast did not retract the story, issue an apology, or make any payment.
The Daily Beast has contacted the U.S. Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service for comment.
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