Washington: President Donald Trump has filed a civil lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and the US Treasury Department, seeking at least $10 billion in damages over the unauthorised disclosure of his tax return information by an agency contractor who later pleaded guilty to a felony.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in the Southern District of Florida, names the IRS and the Treasury Department as defendants and was brought by Trump alongside his two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as the Trump Organization.
The complaint centers on Charles “Chaz” Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor who is currently serving a five-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to unlawfully accessing and disclosing confidential taxpayer information. Prosecutors have said Littlejohn sought employment linked to the IRS with the intention of obtaining and leaking tax records.
“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 lawsuit relies on federal statutes that allow taxpayers to seek damages from the government for the knowing or negligent disclosure of protected return information.
Trump and the other plaintiffs argue that the IRS had a legal duty to safeguard their tax data and failed to implement adequate administrative, technical, and physical protections.
According to the complaint, Littlejohn accessed and disclosed tax return information belonging to Trump, his family members and hundreds of Trump Organization entities between 2018 and 2020. The materials were later used in reporting by media outlets including The New York Times and ProPublica.
The plaintiffs contend that although those stories were published years ago, they were not formally notified by the Treasury Department until much later that an IRS contractor was responsible for the disclosures. The lawsuit argues that this delayed notification is relevant because federal law generally imposes a two-year deadline for filing such claims.
“Plaintiffs had no reason to believe that an unauthorized disclosure had occurred for at least two reasons,” the complaint states, citing the absence of attribution to the IRS in early reporting and an internal review that, at the time, concluded the disclosure did not originate within the agency.
The filing seeks statutory damages, punitive damages and recovery of legal costs, asserting that the scale of the breach — involving multiple years of tax returns and hundreds of related entities — justifies an 11-figure claim.
The lawsuit comes 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 connected to the IRS. Federal officials have said the move followed concerns about the firm’s failure to adequately protect sensitive taxpayer information.
Littlejohn’s criminal case concluded last year, when he was sentenced to five years in prison after admitting that he knowingly and willfully disclosed confidential tax data. Prosecutors said his actions undermined public trust in the IRS’s ability to protect sensitive financial information.
The IRS has not publicly commented on the lawsuit.
The IRS has previously acknowledged lapses in its data security systems following the Littlejohn case and has said it made “substantial investments” to strengthen safeguards. In a separate lawsuit brought by another victim of the breach, hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, the agency issued an apology and later reached a resolution.
(IANS)
