Trump Files $10bn Lawsuit Against US Tax Agency Over Leaked Records

President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), seeking $10 billion over alleged leaked tax returns that he claims caused harm to his business.

The lawsuit, filed by Trump in his personal capacity along with his two eldest sons, Eric and Donald Jr., and their family business, The Trump Organization, alleges that the IRS and the US Treasury Department “had a duty to safeguard and protect Plaintiffs’ confidential tax returns.”

Trump’s tax returns were the subject of intense public scrutiny during his first term in office after he declined to release them as a candidate, breaking with longstanding precedent.

According to the lawsuit, the tax documents were leaked to the press by Charles “Chaz” Littlejohn, a former IRS employee, between May 2019 and September 2020. “Defendants have caused Plaintiffs reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump and the other Plaintiffs’ public standing,” the filing in Miami federal court stated. Littlejohn pleaded guilty in 2023 to releasing Trump’s tax returns and is serving a five-year sentence.

Reports in September 2020 indicated that Trump, who had repeatedly declined to make his tax returns public, paid only $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017 and none at all for 10 of the preceding 15 years.

This is not the first time Trump has pursued legal action against the federal government. He previously sought $230 million from the US Department of Justice over investigations related to classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.