DW, AFP, AP
Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the United States' tax collection agency and finance department over a leak of his tax records that dragged him into a controversy in 2020.
President Donald Trump on Thursday filed a case against the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Treasury for $10 billion (€8.39 billion), accusing the agencies of leaking his tax information to news outlets between 2018 and 2020.
The lawsuit, filed in Florida by the president in his personal capacity with his two eldest sons Eric and Donald Jr. and their family enterprise, The Trump Organization, said the IRS and US Treasury Department "had a duty to safeguard and protect Plaintiffs' confidential tax returns."
Trump has argued that the tax returns leak 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."
During his first term, Trump had fiercely guarded his tax filings and was the only US president in modern times not to make them public, despite saying he would.
Trump's refusal to make his tax records public was widely covered by the media and had become the focus of much speculation.
How did Trump's tax record get leaked?
In 2024, former IRS contractor Charles "Chaz" Edward Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to leaking the tax information to news organizations.
After the leak, the New York Times reported in 2020 that Trump, who had repeatedly refused to make his tax returns public, paid only $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017, and none at all for 10 of the previous 15 years.
The tax leak violated IRS Code 6103, one of the strictest confidentiality laws in federal statute.
Chaz gave Trump's tax information to the New York Times and ProPublica between 2018 and 2020 in leaks that appeared to be "unparalleled in the IRS's history," according to prosecutors.
Edited by: Saim DuĊĦan Inayatullah
The lawsuit, filed in Florida by the president in his personal capacity with his two eldest sons Eric and Donald Jr. and their family enterprise, The Trump Organization, said the IRS and US Treasury Department "had a duty to safeguard and protect Plaintiffs' confidential tax returns."
Trump has argued that the tax returns leak 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."
During his first term, Trump had fiercely guarded his tax filings and was the only US president in modern times not to make them public, despite saying he would.
Trump's refusal to make his tax records public was widely covered by the media and had become the focus of much speculation.
How did Trump's tax record get leaked?
In 2024, former IRS contractor Charles "Chaz" Edward Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to leaking the tax information to news organizations.
After the leak, the New York Times reported in 2020 that Trump, who had repeatedly refused to make his tax returns public, paid only $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017, and none at all for 10 of the previous 15 years.
The tax leak violated IRS Code 6103, one of the strictest confidentiality laws in federal statute.
Chaz gave Trump's tax information to the New York Times and ProPublica between 2018 and 2020 in leaks that appeared to be "unparalleled in the IRS's history," according to prosecutors.
Edited by: Saim DuĊĦan Inayatullah
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