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.
