President Donald Trump and his family are taking the IRS and Treasury Department to court over what they're calling a massive failure to protect their confidential tax information. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, demands $10 billion in damages and paints a picture of government agencies asleep at the wheel while a rogue employee leaked sensitive financial data.

The Leak and the Leaker

The plaintiffs include Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, plus the Trump Organization that the brothers manage. They're alleging that the IRS and Treasury Department failed to stop former IRS employee Charles "Chaz" Littlejohn from unauthorized disclosure of their tax records during 2019 and 2020.

Littlejohn isn't exactly a mystery figure at this point. He's currently serving a five-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in October 2023 to illegally disclosing tax return information. His disclosure spree included Trump's tax records, which ended up at The New York Times, and data on wealthy individuals that went to ProPublica.

According to the lawsuit, Littlejohn admitted in a 2024 deposition to sharing Trump-related business information with ProPublica. The suit alleges that ProPublica's reporting falsely suggested the tax records showed signs of fraud, which is where things get legally interesting for the Trump family.

What They're Claiming

The lawsuit argues that the defendants caused reputational and financial damage through "public embarrassment" of the plaintiffs. They claim it harmed their business reputations, portrayed them falsely, and tanked their public standing. It's worth noting that $10 billion is a substantial number, even by government lawsuit standards.

The IRS and Treasury Department haven't responded to requests for comment, so we're hearing one side of this story for now.

Part of a Pattern

This lawsuit arrives just days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent canceled all contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH), a management consulting firm. Bessent cited failures to protect sensitive taxpayer data and a past breach that exposed confidential tax information. The timing suggests the administration is taking a harder line on data protection issues across the board.

And this isn't Trump's only high-dollar legal claim against government agencies or major institutions. In October, The New York Times reported that Trump demanded $230 million from the Department of Justice over investigations into the FBI's 2022 Mar-a-Lago search for classified documents and the earlier probe into possible links between his 2016 campaign and Russia. Trump said he wasn't aware of the specific amounts and hadn't discussed the claims with officials, but insisted he was owed significant money and suggested the final decision rests with him, despite Justice Department review procedures.

Earlier this month, Trump also said he plans to sue JPMorgan Chase (JPM) over the sudden closure of his bank accounts following the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He's accusing the bank of improperly "debanking" him.

Whether any of these lawsuits succeed is another question entirely, but they certainly establish a pattern of aggressive legal action over privacy and access issues.