Trump, two sons, Trump Org sue IRS, Treasury for $10 billion over tax records leak
Source: CNBC
Published Thu, Jan 29 2026 7:10 PM EST Updated 10 Min Ago
President Donald Trump, his two eldest sons, and his family business sued the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Treasury Department over alleged leaks of their confidential tax information, court records showed Thursday.
The plaintiffs seek at least $10 billion in damages, according to the lawsuit in Miami federal court.
The civil complaint alleges that the IRS and Treasury failed in their obligation to prevent the leak of those tax records by former IRS employee Charles Chaz Littlejohn in 2019 and 2020.
In addition to Trump, the plaintiffs are his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization, which the sons run.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/29/trump-sues-irs-and-treasury-for-10-billion-over-leak-of-tax-records.html
Article updated.
Previous article -
President Donald Trump, his two eldest sons, and his family business sued the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Treasury Department over alleged leaks of their confidential tax information, court records showed Thursday.
The plaintiffs seek at least $10 billion in damages, according to the lawsuit in Miami federal court. The civil complaint alleges that the IRS and Treasury failed in their obligation to prevent the leak of those tax records by former IRS employee Charles "Chaz" Littlejohn in 2019 and 2020.
A spokesman for Trump's legal team told CNBC in a statement, "The IRS wrongly allowed a rogue, politically-motivated employee to leak private and confidential information about President Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization to the New York Times, ProPublica and other left-wing news outlets, which was then illegally released to millions of people."
"President Trump continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable," the spokesman said.
Original article/headline -
Published Thu, Jan 29 2026 7:10 PM EST Updated 2 Min Ago
President Donald Trump, his two eldest sons and his family business sued the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Treasury Department over alleged leaks of their confidential tax information, court records showed Thursday.
A spokesman for Trump's legal team told CNBC in a statement, "The IRS wrongly allowed a rogue, politically-motivated employee to leak private and confidential information about President Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization to the New York Times, ProPublica and other left-wing news outlets, which was then illegally released to millions of people."
"President Trump continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable," the spokesman said.
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
yellow dahlia
(5,204 posts)popsdenver
(1,870 posts)of his attempts to Grift more Tax Payer Money.....
yellow dahlia
(5,204 posts)Wicked Blue
(8,720 posts)It might be worth every penny
FalloutShelter
(14,276 posts)Unbelievable.
highplainsdem
(60,812 posts)biophile
(1,304 posts)The ones he should have released
dweller
(28,000 posts)good luck proving that, Pisswig
✌🏻
Dale in Laurel MD
(797 posts)isn't he suing his own employees for actually doing their job?
eggplant
(4,154 posts)twodogsbarking
(17,943 posts)Probatim
(3,235 posts)I could use $10bn.
dweller
(28,000 posts)We could sue for
1 trillion $$$
✌🏻
Puppyjive
(950 posts)If the guy is found guilty, the next president can pardon him.
ChicagoTeamster
(598 posts)0rganism
(25,526 posts)Hmm, what could possibly go wrong? Seriously, this situation is entirely unacceptable.
Fichefinder
(405 posts)Buddyzbuddy
(2,318 posts)the loots being held these days. See how much they LOVE AMERICA
When he was humping that flag, he was more honest about what he was going to do than we gave him credit for.
Callie1979
(1,224 posts)Plus where's the damage?
Callie1979
(1,224 posts)Violation of the Constitution. IMO
muriel_volestrangler
(105,833 posts)He's spent a year sacking anyone who doesn't bend the knee to him, and now it's the remainder who get to decide if they contest the suit. The conflict of interest is stratospheric.
Nothing should be allowed to happen on this until he's left office.
Blue Full Moon
(3,291 posts)I owed last year. I have been receiving notices from companies stating that they can help. There is only one way they would know.
angrychair
(11,901 posts)The people in those departments all work for him. This is a scam. They will settle out of court "for an undisclosed amount". This a scam to steal money from the American taxpayers.
Marcuse
(8,846 posts)Talitha
(7,777 posts)taxi
(2,687 posts)We need to throw that in the face of every republican who has a problem with what things cost.
lark
(25,959 posts)Worst of the worst!
Bengus81
(9,967 posts)purr-rat beauty
(1,087 posts)Illegally accessing our data for whatever reasons is criminal in my eyes.
PSPS
(15,263 posts)travelingthrulife
(4,813 posts)LetMyPeopleVote
(176,722 posts)Vague presidential assurances dont turn a baseless lawsuit into a good one.
To hear Trump tell it, ânobody would careâ if, as a result of his baseless lawsuit against the IRS, he agreed to award himself billions of taxpayer dollars, so long as he gave the money to charity.
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-02-02T15:51:59.212Z
Given his own record, itâs not nearly that simple.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/on-his-irs-suit-trump-claims-nobody-would-care-about-a-multibillion-dollar-payout
During a brief Q-and-A with reporters on Air Force One on Saturday night, Trump publicly commented on the civil litigation for the first time.
Trump on his multiple suits against the federal government: "I'm supposed to work out a settlement with myself ... We could make it a substantial amount, nobody would care, because it's gonna go to numerous, very good charities."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-01T02:20:30.184Z
....As Trump apparently sees it, Americans wont be outraged if he agrees to pay himself billions of taxpayer dollars, so long as he doesnt keep billions of taxpayer dollars.
If only it were that simple. For one thing, there are no guarantees that hed direct all of the money to charitable causes. For another, Trumps track record of following through on vows to give to charity isnt exactly sterling, which makes it difficult to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Just as notable is the simple fact that the president filed an absurd $10 billion lawsuit, seeking a payoff he neither needs nor deserves. Vague assurances about where some or all of that money might go at some future date dont turn a baseless case into a good one.
Writing for MS NOW, political columnist Paul Waldman explained that the presidents litigation is so brazen, so shameless, so stunning that it will stand out in history even in a presidential term drowning in self-dealing. Waldman added, This latest act deploys Trumps favorite financial weapon the bogus lawsuit but in a way no one even contemplated before.
On ABC News This Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche about the obvious conflict of interest, as Trump seeks money from his own administration. Blanche, a former Trump defense attorney, replied, Were looking at how to handle that.
That wasnt altogether reassuring.
LetMyPeopleVote
(176,722 posts)The more the president tries to defend his desire for a taxpayer-financed payout, the worse his position appears.
Trump shares his plan for the billion he expects to receive from his IRS lawsuit - MS NOW
— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2026-02-05T23:49:05.193Z
apple.news/ARl5TPJvuSMe...
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-shares-his-plan-for-the-10-billion-he-expects-to-receive-from-his-irs-lawsuit
More than five years later, Trump has decided that the criminal penalty wasnt enough: He believes the disclosure of the truth entitles him to a $10 billion payout from the federal tax agency, which the president sued last week.
The payout, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent conceded to senators, would come from American taxpayers.....
Just as notably, the underlying lawsuit is still absurd, and vague assurances about where some or all of the money might go at some future date dont turn a baseless case into a good one.
But there is another part of Trumps pitch that stands out for me. From the transcript:
I have another lawsuit with the United States. I sued because they broke into Mar-a-Lago. And Ive won that case. I mean, I virtually, they broke, the FBI illegally, Biden and his group. It wasnt Biden. He didnt know what he was doing. It was a group of very smart radical left people. Theyre very smart. They just, theyve lost their way.
And they broke into Mar-a-Lago. They broke into my home. They went through my wifes drawers. They went through, you know its a double meaning. They went through Barrons, my sons, everything. They went through the whole house. Hundreds of people, they went in with guns. They went in guns, wouldve been a-blazing. I brought a lawsuit. Essentially, the lawsuits been won. I guess I won a lot of money.
Most of this is familiar nonsense (no one, for example, broke into his glorified country club, and there was no secret cabal orchestrating the law enforcement process), but one element to this deserves additional scrutiny: He said hes essentially won a lawsuit that resulted in him getting a lot of money......
On the other side of Capitol Hill, two leading Democratic senators, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden and Banking Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren, launched a new investigation this week into Trumps $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.
While the Internal Revenue Code permits a taxpayer to seek redress for unauthorized disclosures, Congress designed this provision to provide compensation for proven harm not to confer $10 billion dollar windfalls to a President seeking to line his own pockets at taxpayer expense, the Oregon and Massachusetts senators wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
They added, The leaks occurred from May 2019 through September 2020, when President Trump was in office and his hand-picked nominees, Steven Mnuchin and Charles Rettig, controlled the Treasury and IRS respectively. Trump is in essence now suing the government for his own failures during his first term. This lawsuit is a shameless and transparent act of corruption that should make any Americans head spin. We fear that instead of fighting this frivolous attempt by President Trump to profit off the failures of his own administration, cabinet officials intend not only to capitulate to Trump but coordinate with him in this brazen theft from the American people.
The concept that trump would have officials he appointed approve a settlement of this bogus claim is crazy.
