Donald Trump sues the IRS and Treasury for at least $10bn
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-sues-irs-treasury-012255473.html
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Donald Trump and his family have sued the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury department for at least $10bn over the leak of tax returns, in a move that pits the US president against his own government.
The lawsuit brought by Trump, his two older sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric, and the Trump Organization, stems from the disclosure of tax documents that former IRS contractor and Booz Allen Hamilton employee Charles Littlejohn leaked to the New York Times, ProPublica and other organisations in 2019 and 2020.
The suit claims the leak to "leftist media outlets" 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' public standing", according to the complaint filed in Miami federal court on Thursday.
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The lawsuit marks a highly unusual move by a sitting US president to take legal action against arms of his own government.
The Trumps allege the IRS and Treasury department failed to establish proper safeguards to ensure the security and confidentiality of the tax returns of the US president and his family.
The Treasury and the IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the suit.
The Treasury department earlier this week said it was cancelling its contracts with the consulting firm Booz Allen as punishment for the leaking of Trump's tax returns and the confidential filings of thousands of other wealthy individuals.
In January 2024 Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking Trump's tax documents and those of other wealthy individuals.
The sentencing judge called it "the biggest heist in IRS history".
The news website ProPublica published more than 50 stories based on the leaks, which shone a harsh spotlight on the tax strategies of billionaires from Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to Warren Buffett and Michael Bloomberg.
As candidate and as president, Trump eschewed long-standing tradition by refusing to release his tax returns, which fuelled media speculation about his financial standing.
In 2020, the New York Times reported that in 2016, the year he was elected president, Trump paid $750 in federal income tax and that he had paid no income tax at all in 10 of the prior 15 years after he reported losses that exceeded his earnings.
Additional reporting by Stephen Foley