Washington, 30 Jan

President Donald Trump, his two eldest sons, and his family business are suing the IRS and the Treasury Department for USD 10 billion, citing the agencies’ failure to prevent the leak of that confidential tax information to news outlets. The suit was filed in a Florida federal court on Thursday.

Leaked records famously revealed that Donald Trump paid only USD 750 in federal income taxes in both 2016, the year he won the presidency, and 2017, his first year in office. Even more striking, the reports showed he paid no federal income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years.

The lawsuit follows the 2024 sentencing of former IRS contractor Charles Edward Littlejohn, who received five years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing and leaking tax data to The New York Times—acts prosecutors called “unparalleled in the IRS’s history.”

The President's suit comes shortly after the US Treasury Department announced earlier this week that it terminated its contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton. The move was a direct response to the breach involving Littlejohn, who compromised the records of thousands of the country's wealthiest individuals in addition to the President.

Trump's lawsuit alleges that the disclosures “caused reputational and financial harm to Plaintiffs and adversely impacted President Trump's support among voters in the 2020 presidential election.”

Representatives for the Treasury and the IRS were not immediately available for comment.