‘Unlawful conduct’: Trump sues IRS for allowing his tax records to be hacked
President Donald Trump has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Treasury Department alleging a former IRS worker leaked his confidential tax records to the public.
The lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida cites the release of his tax records six years ago and accuses the defendants of failing to prevent the leak by Charles “Chaz” Littlejohn.
He accessed the records – illegally – and then fed them to leftist news organizations in 2019 and 2020, according to a report in the Washington Examiner.
The defendants are accused of failing to have mandatory precautions against such leaks.
“Defendants had a duty to safeguard and protect Plaintiffs’ confidential tax returns and related tax return information from such unauthorized inspection and public disclosure,” the filing charges. “Accordingly, Defendants were obligated to have appropriate technical, employee screening, security, and monitoring systems to prevent Littlejohn’s unlawful conduct.”
The president is not bringing the case alone. Also plaintiffs are his two older sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, and the Trump Organization.
The defendants allowed and caused “significant and irreparable harm” by allowing Littlejohn to access and leak the details.
Littlejohn, who now is serving a prison term after pleading guilty to disclosing tax information, stole information while a contractor for the IRS from 2017 to 2021.
The report added, “On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced his department had canceled all contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton in connection with Littlejohn, who was employed by the management consulting company at the time.”
“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,” a statement from the legal team for the plaintiffs said.