President Trump has filed a sweeping civil lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, seeking at least $10 billion in damages over the unlawful disclosure of his tax return information by a government contractor.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in the Southern District of Florida, names the IRS and the Treasury Department as defendants. Trump is joined as a plaintiff by his two eldest sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., as well as the Trump Organization.
At the center of the case is Charles Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor who is currently serving a five-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to a felony for leaking confidential taxpayer data. Prosecutors previously said Littlejohn sought government work specifically to access and disclose private tax records.
According to the complaint, the disclosures caused extensive personal and professional damage. “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 lawsuit states.
The leaked information was later used in reporting by major outlets, including The New York Times and ProPublica, which published detailed stories on President Trump’s finances beginning as early as 2020.
Federal law permits taxpayers to seek damages from the government for unauthorized disclosures of protected tax information but imposes a two-year statute of limitations. Trump’s legal team argues that the clock should begin later, maintaining the plaintiffs were unaware the IRS was the source of the leak until receiving formal notification from the Treasury Department.
“Plaintiffs had no reason to believe that an unauthorized disclosure had occurred for at least two reasons,” the lawsuit states. “First, the New York Times reporting did not state that the information came from the IRS, and second, the IRS Commissioner supposedly investigated and found that the disclosure did not come from the IRS.”
The filing comes just days after the Treasury Department announced it was canceling contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, the consulting firm that employed Littlejohn while he was performing work for the IRS.
Trump is represented by his personal legal team, led by attorney Alex Britto. The case sets up a rare legal confrontation between the president and the Justice Department that serves under his administration. The Hill has reached out to an IRS spokesperson for comment.
