Trump Sues Irs For $10b Over Leaked Tax Returns

President Donald Trump is suing the Internal Revenue Service for $10 billion, claiming the agency was responsible for his tax returns being leaked to the press.

The president filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court in Miami against the IRS and the Treasury Department, accusing them of being culpable after an IRS contractor leaked tax documents Trump had fought to keep private for years. The documents showed he paid no income tax for several years before he entered the White House.

Lawyers for the president, and his two sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who run the Trump Organization, argued the IRS had “a duty to safeguard and protect” Trump’s tax returns from public disclosure.

The leak caused “reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump” and his business, Trump’s lawyers said in the suit.

The lawsuit comes a year after Charles Littlejohn, an IRS contractor working for consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, was convicted of leaking the tax returns of Trump and thousands of other high net worth individuals to The New York Times and ProPublica. Trump did not release his returns during his presidential campaigns, which broke years of political tradition.

The New York Times reported Trump paid no federal income tax in 10 out of 15 years prior to 2019. ProPublica reported in 2019 it found discrepancies in the financial records for his company’s buildings as part of an investigative series. POLITICO has not independently reviewed the documents.

Though the lawsuit does not directly target Booz Allen or Littlejohn — who was sentenced to five years in prison — the company has drawn the ire of the administration. Earlier this week, the Treasury Department withdrew all contracts with the company, accusing it of failing to secure taxpayer information it gained access to through government work.

In 2024, the IRS apologized to Trump and other victims of the leak, including hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, who also sued the IRS.

The agency said it had made “substantial investments in its data security to strengthen its safeguarding of taxpayer information,” which prompted Griffin to drop his lawsuit.