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Former President Donald Trump filed a federal lawsuit Thursday in Miami seeking at least $10 billion in damages, accusing the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of the Treasury of failing to prevent a former IRS contractor from leaking his tax returns to news outlets.

Trump, suing in his personal capacity, claims the IRS had a duty to safeguard his tax returns and properly vet employees but “failed to take such mandatory precautions,” causing harm to him, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization.

Allegations of Reputational and Financial Harm

The lawsuit asserts that the agencies’ alleged negligence resulted in “reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished business reputations, and negative effects on public standing” for the plaintiffs. Trump said the alleged failures inflicted “significant and irreparable harm” on both personal and corporate interests.

The case follows the October 2023 guilty plea of former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn, who admitted to stealing tax information from Trump and thousands of other wealthy Americans, disclosing it to The New York Times and ProPublica. Littlejohn, employed through Booz Allen Hamilton, was sentenced in January 2024 to five years in prison and has appealed his sentence to the D.C. Circuit.

IRS Responsibility and Oversight

Trump’s suit emphasizes that Littlejohn was “at all relevant times” acting as a U.S. employee and contractor, with “staff-like access” to confidential tax returns under the IRS’s supervision. According to the complaint, the IRS controlled his daily work, set data access parameters, and had authority to reprimand or terminate him.

“These facts more than support the plausible inference that Littlejohn was an employee of the United States,” the complaint says, noting that Littlejohn described his IRS work as a “full-time job” from May 2019 through September 2020.

Trump alleges the IRS “willfully” failed to establish safeguards, taking three years to detect Littlejohn’s breaches of confidentiality. The suit also claims Littlejohn had authorized access to vast taxpayer documents he should not have under federal law.

Context and Wider Fallout

The lawsuit comes days after the Treasury Department canceled $21 million in contracts with Booz Allen, citing the leak and noting the consulting firm “failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data.”

A spokesman for Trump’s legal team told Law360 that the IRS “wrongly allowed a rogue, politically-motivated employee to leak private and confidential information” to left-leaning outlets, affecting millions of readers.

Trump had previously cited an ongoing audit as the reason for not releasing his tax returns during his 2020 campaign. The lawsuit underscores his claim that the agencies’ negligence allowed confidential information to be weaponized against him and his family.

Legal Representation

Trump is represented by Alejandro Brito and Ian Michael Corp of Brito PLLC, and Daniel Z. Epstein. Counsel information for the IRS and Treasury Department was not immediately available.