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Donald Trump's latest retribution attempt targets the Treasury Department and the US Internal Revenue Service, as he filed a lawsuit in Florida alongside two of his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, seeking at least $10 billion in damages. The complaint accuses the agencies of allowing an unauthorized leak of his tax returns during his first administration, an episode that has continued to fuel Trump's claims of institutional misconduct. The legal action follows the sentencing of former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024 after admitting to disclosing thousands of tax returns without authorization, according to CNN.
Trump's legal team accused the IRS in a statement of having « allowed a rogue, politically-motivated employee » to leak private and confidential information about Trump, the Trump Organization and members of his family. According to the statement, the disclosures were deliberately funneled to several left-wing media outlets, including the New York Time and ProPublica, which the lawsuit claims amplified the breach by publishing the material. The legal filing further alleges that these organizations « illegally released » Trump's tax returns to « millions of people, » framing the episode as a coordinated violation of federal law and taxpayer privacy protections. The accusations are presented as central to Trump's broader claim that federal institutions failed to prevent, and in effect enabled, the unlawful dissemination of sensitive financial records.
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.
Trump was the first president in decades not to voluntarily release his full tax returns, breaking a long-standing tradition in US politics in which presidential candidates and sitting presidents routinely made their tax filings public as a basic transparency measure. The controversy intensified after a separate criminal case revealed how some of that information reached the media. According to US prosecutors, former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn illegally accessed and disclosed Trump's tax data while working for the agency, with the unauthorized transfers occurring in 2019 and 2020. Reporting based on the leaked material and later confirmed by the tax returns released by Congress shows that Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and again in 2017, and no federal income tax at all in 2020. These figures became central to public scrutiny of Trump's finances and tax practices, reinforcing claims that he used losses and deductions to dramatically reduce his tax liability in several years.
Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has pursued a series of high-value legal actions seeking financial damages, largely against media and technology companies. In early 2025, he reached a settlement with Meta over social-media account suspensions, resulting in about $25 million, largely directed to his presidential library. In mid-2025, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC/Disney over televised comments, a case later settled for roughly $15 million, plus legal fees. In July 2025, he sued the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones over alleged defamatory reporting linked to Jeffrey Epstein, seeking $10 billion, with the case still pending. In September 2025, Trump brought a defamation suit against The New York Times and Penguin Random House, tied to investigative reporting and a related book, demanding $15 billion; the case was later dismissed with the option to refile. Later in 2025, Trump sued CBS and its parent company Paramount Global over edited footage aired on 60 Minutes, initially seeking $20 billion, before the dispute was settled for $16 million. He has also threatened legal action against the BBC, accusing the broadcaster of misleading editing in a documentary and warning of a potential lawsuit seeking $1 billion in damages, though no formal case has been filed to date.
Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has continued to press financial claims against the US government tied to past federal investigations. In 2024, his lawyers filed administrative damage claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act seeking more than $100 million from the Department of Justice over the August 2022 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, alleging misconduct and reputational harm. Those filings also included a broader compensation request totaling about $230 million, covering both the Mar-a-Lago search and the earlier Russia investigation. In 2025, Trump publicly confirmed those figures, saying the federal government «owes him a lot of money,» while acknowledging that any settlement would require approval from his own administration. The claims were formally submitted and reviewed by the Justice Department, but had not yet resulted in a court lawsuit at the time of his comments.
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