A major legal flaw has emerged in President Donald Trump’s blockbuster lawsuit demanding at least $10 billion from the federal government over the leak of his tax returns.
Trump filed suit Thursday against the IRS and the Treasury Department, accusing the agencies led by his own appointees of failing to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of his tax records during his first White House term. But legal experts are questioning the MAGA leader’s claim that he did not learn of the leak until exactly two years before filing the lawsuit.
Under federal law, taxpayers generally have two years to sue the government after discovering an improper disclosure, the New York Times reportedFriday. Trump’s complaint says he only became aware of the IRS leak on Jan. 29, 2024, when the agency sent him a formal notice – exactly two years before he filed suit.
Trump’s assertion is “hard to support,” according to Leslie Book, a law professor at Villanova University.
“There was quite a bit of litigation and press coverage concerning the nature of the disclosure that Littlejohn engaged in,” Book told the Times, referring to former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn. “To argue, as Trump is arguing in the suit, that he wasn’t aware of this, that he didn’t discover it until the I.R.S. sent that letter, frankly, I find hard to support.”
According to the publication, Littlejohn pleaded guilty in October 2023 to leaking Trump’s tax returns to the Times, along with other tax data of other wealthy Americans he separately provided to ProPublica.
Former Justice Department tax lawyer Francesca Ugolini added that Trump’s appointees could feel pressure to settle the case.
“It’s hard to imagine that they wouldn’t feel that pressure, even if it wasn’t explicit,” she said, according to the Times, adding that without congressional intervention to attempt to limit the DOJ’s ability to settle, “there’s not really another check.”
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