Why Trump Is Suing the IRS and Treasury Department for $10 Billion

President Donald Trump, alongside the Trump Organization, and his sons Eric and Donald Jr., is suing the IRS and the Treasury Department for $10 billion. In a lawsuit filed in a Miami federal court Thursday, Trump and the other plaintiffs accused the federal agencies of failing in their duty of stopping former Internal Revenue Service contractor Charles Littlejohn—who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting company—from illegally obtaining and disclosing tax returns to the New York Times, ProPublica, and “other leftist media outlets,” between May 2019 and September 2020. The lawsuit claims the IRS and Treasury Department “had a duty to safeguard and protect plaintiffs’ confidential tax returns and related tax return information from such unauthorized inspection and public disclosure.” It argues that both departments were “obligated to have appropriate technical, employee screening, security, and monitoring systems to prevent Littlejohn’s unlawful conduct.” Such leaks have caused “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, the lawsuit alleges.  TIME has contacted the White House, the Treasury Department, and the IRS for comment.  Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison in January 2024 for “disclosing thousands of tax returns without authorization,” according to the Justice Department.  Per court documents, Littlejohn accessed and stole tax return information “associated with a high-ranking government official” titled as ‘Public Official A’, as well as the official’s “related individuals and entities” while working as a contractor for the IRS. Between August and October of 2019, Littlejohn shared this information with an unnamed news organization, which then published “a series of articles about Public Official A’s tax returns using the tax return information obtained from Littlejohn.” Littlejohn pleaded guilty in October 2023 to unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information. Not long after receiving his sentencing in January 2024, he pledged his intention to appeal the judgment. A verdict has not been given regarding the appeal. In September 2020, the New York Times published articles detailing Trump’s tax returns, including claims that the President paid only $750 in income tax in both 2016 and 2017, as well as no income tax paid in 10 of the 15 years prior. ProPublica, another journalism organization cited in the lawsuit, published a series titled “The Secret IRS Files” in 2021 which unveiled tax information belonging to high-profile wealthy figures such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. ProPublica has maintained “it does not know the source of the information.” The lawsuit comes as the Treasury Department announced earlier this week that it is cancelling all contracts, worth a total of $21 million, with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. “Booz Allen failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday. “Most notably, between 2018 and 2020, Charles Edward Littlejohn—an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton—stole and leaked the confidential tax returns and return information of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers,” said Bessent.  Booz Allen said it was “surprised” by the decision to terminate the contracts and argued the firm has “consistently condemned in the strongest possible terms the actions of Charles Littlejohn, who was active with the company years ago.” The firm added: “When Littlejohn’s criminal conduct occurred over 5 years ago, it was on government systems, not Booz Allen systems. Booz Allen stores no taxpayer data on its systems and has no ability to monitor activity on government networks.” Meanwhile, this isn’t the first time Trump has filed a lawsuit related to tax returns. Trump sued the House Ways and Means Committee to block the disclosure of his tax returns in 2019. But his returns between 2015 and 2020 were ultimately published following a House committee vote in December 2022. He was the first President to have his tax returns forcibly released.