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President Donald Trump and his two sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, have filed a lawsuit against the IRS and the US Treasury over leaks of their business and personal tax returns.
As reported by the BBC, the civil complaint lodged in Miami federal court is seeking $10 billion in damages.
The Trump family has accused the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Treasury Department of failing to prevent the leak of "confidential, personal financial information" by a former IRS contractor, Charles "Chaz" Littlejohn.
The contractor is serving a five-year prison term after being convicted of disclosing the documents to US media outlets.
Ahead of the 2016 election, Trump became the first presidential candidate in 50 years who refused to release his tax returns, citing an audit. He said the same ahead of his 2020 re-election run.
However, in September 2020, The New York Times published an extensive report on Trump's tax returns, revealing he paid only $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency and no taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years.
Two years later, in 2022, the president released the documents himself.
Trump, his sons and the Trump Organisation said in the lawsuit that they suffered reputational and financial harm, along with public embarrassment from leaks, which tarnished their business reputation.
Littlejohn pleaded guilty in 2023 to stealing tax data from Trump and thousands of wealthy Americans while working as a contractor for the IRS. In 2024, he was sentenced to five years in prison.
