(Jan 31): President Donald Trump sued the US Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for at least US$10 billion over an unauthorised disclosure of his tax returns to the press during his first term in office, potentially putting American taxpayers on the hook for a massive payout.
The suit was filed on Thursday in Miami federal court by Trump, his sons Donald Jr and Eric, and the Trump Organization, which manages the president’s real estate holdings. Trump had long criticised the IRS for allegedly working to undermine him for political purposes.
Trump’s lawsuit revisits a clash that took centre stage weeks before the 2020 election, when the New York Times published an explosive report on Trump’s tax records that was based on leaked IRS data. Former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn pleaded guilty in 2023 to stealing Trump’s tax data and leaking it to the Times. He also stole tax records for thousands of other wealthy Americans, including Ken Griffin, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, which he leaked to ProPublica.
The IRS and Treasury “had a duty to safeguard and protect plaintiffs’ confidential tax returns and related tax return information from such unauthorised inspection and public disclosure,” Trump’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, said in the suit. “Accordingly, defendants were obligated to have appropriate technical, employee screening, security, and monitoring systems to prevent Littlejohn’s unlawful conduct.”
The lawsuit by a sitting president against the government he leads puts Trump in a highly unusual position in the case. Loyal administration officials at the Justice Department could ultimately decide whether to move to settle the case, and for how much.
See also: Rubio says US ready to use force to ensure Venezuela’s cooperation
The Treasury and the New York Times didn’t respond to requests for comment. ProPublica declined to comment. The news outlets are not accused of wrongdoing.
US$50 billion
The filing adds to a series of lawsuits brought by Trump or his sprawling real estate empire over the past year that have targeted news outlets and banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, which he sued last week. Total damages being sought in all the cases now top US$50 billion.
See also: US Republicans divided after latest shooting by federal agents
The IRS case was assigned to US District Judge Kathleen Williams, an appointee of former president Barack Obama.
According to the New York Times report, the IRS records showed that Trump, who lost the election to Joe Biden in 2020, had paid US$750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, and no taxes in 10 of the previous 15 years, because of large losses that offset any profits.
The Times report said that many of Trump’s businesses were struggling, with the president putting more money into the firms than he was taking out, and that he earned millions abroad during his first term in the White House.
At the time, Trump dismissed the reporting as “totally fake news.”
The report also led to a multi-year saga in which Democratic lawmakers sought to make Trump’s closely held tax information public.
Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison in January 2024, after admitting he’d gone to work at the IRS with the goal of accessing Trump’s tax data. His lawyer told the judge at the sentencing hearing that Littlejohn acted out of a “deep, moral belief” that Americans had a right to the information.
Earlier this week, Treasury said it canceled US$21 million of contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, where Littlejohn worked, alleging the consulting firm failed to protect taxpayer data to which it had access. The IRS has determined that 406,000 taxpayers were affected by the breach that occurred between 2018 and 2020, the Treasury said.
To stay ahead of Singapore and the region’s corporate and economic trends, click here for Latest Section
After Treasury cancelled its contracts, Booz Allen said it looks forward to discussing the matter with the Treasury and distanced itself from Littlejohn. The company said it supported the investigation and that its assistance led to his prosecution. The company also said that Littlejohn’s criminal conduct occurred on government systems, not Booz Allen’s.
Other lawsuits
Trump’s new case against the IRS follows a wave of lawsuits filed by Trump in his personal capacity seeking damages for alleged wrongs. He accused JPMorgan and Capital One Financial Corp of illegally “de-banking” him or his real estate business for political reasons. He’s also filed defamation cases against the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the British Broadcasting Corp, all of which deny wrongdoing. Trump’s suits against broadcasters ABC and CBS settled for a total of US$31 million.
The IRS isn’t Trump’s only government target in court. The president previously indicated he was seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from the US Justice Department through an administrative claim process. He claims the department violated his rights with investigations into whether his 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia in connection with the 2016 election and his post-presidential retention of classified documents.
Trump has repeatedly remarked on the unusual situation his claim against DOJ would create — with senior Justice Department officials who work for him would be deciding whether or not to pay the damages — framing the situation as negotiating with himself. The president has pledged not to personally retain a settlement he won from taxpayers over the Justice Department’s conduct.
“As I get money from our country, I’ll do something nice with it, like give it to charity or give it to the White House while we restore the White House,” Trump said last year.
The case is Trump v Internal Revenue Service, 26-cv-20609, US District Court, District of Southern Florida (Miami).
Uploaded by Felyx Teoh
