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President Donald Trump on Thursday night filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, alleging the agencies failed to prevent a former IRS contractor from leaking his tax returns, as well as those of his sons and his company, to news organizations.
The lawsuit is tied to former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn, who pleaded guilty in 2023 to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax information involving President Trump’s tax records and was later sentenced to five years in prison.
According to NBC News, the suit was filed in federal court in Miami and names President Trump in his personal capacity, along with Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and the Trump Organization as plaintiffs.
“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 complaint states.
The filing accuses the Treasury Department and the IRS of failing to safeguard confidential taxpayer information and of inadequate oversight that allowed the disclosures.
The lawsuit is unusual in that it marks the first time a sitting president has sued his own administration seeking monetary damages, even though the alleged misconduct occurred under a prior administration.
The House Judiciary Committee alleged in February 2025 that the IRS, during the Biden administration, leaked taxpayer information for more than 405,000 Americans, including President Trump. The committee announced the news on X, explaining that the IRS had confirmed this following an initial inquiry launched into the situation at the direction of Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, RSBN previously reported.
“The IRS’s admission confirms the Committee’s suspicion and recent reports that show the scope of the leak was much broader than what the Biden Administration’s IRS initially led the public to believe,” the committee account stated.
According to the committee, an IRS spokesman told Republicans in 2024 that only 70,000 Americans were affected by this leak. The new number revealed much more damage, including the leak regarding President Trump’s tax information.