US President Donald Trump today filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the US Internal Revenue Service for damages for failing to prevent the public release of his tax returns during his first term, Agence France-Presse reported, BTA reported.
The US president has always refused to release his tax returns, in contrast to the long tradition established by his predecessors.
The lawsuit filed today by Trump, two of his sons and his company is a civil one, not in his capacity as president. It accuses the Internal Revenue Service of failing to protect his personal information by allowing an IRS employee to make his tax returns public to the media.
This employee – Charles Littlejohn, was sentenced to five years in prison for his actions in January 2024.
But Donald Trump's defense now believes that the US Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department - the two institutions mentioned in the lawsuit - – “had a duty to preserve“ his tax returns, but “failed to take the necessary precautions“.
In doing so, the tax authorities have caused “financial and reputational harm, public humiliation“ and have "damaged President Trump's public image," his lawyers say.
The complaint concerns information published by the "New York Times."
In September 2020, the publication wrote that Donald Trump paid only $750 in federal taxes in 2016 and 2017, and none in 10 of the previous 15 years due to partial to significant losses declared by his companies.
This is not the first time the US president has sought damages from a federal government agency or department.
In October, his lawyers filed a lawsuit for about $230 million against the Department of Justice over previous criminal prosecutions against him.