When it comes to President Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over leaked tax returns, Sen. Ron Johnson has a straightforward take: yes, they deserve to be sued, but no, we don't have that kind of money lying around.

Investigation Over Compensation

Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, the Wisconsin Republican told host Dana Bash he'd rather see aggressive criminal investigation than a massive payout. "I don't doubt the federal government deserves to be sued. The problem is, we don't have $10 billion," Johnson said. "My preference would be to do a robust investigation, find out who leaked those tax returns. That's a federal crime, and punish those individuals to the full extent of the law."

The $10 Billion Question

Trump, along with his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump and the Trump Organization, filed suit in federal court in Miami last Thursday against the IRS and Treasury Department. The lawsuit alleges the agencies failed to "establish necessary administrative, technical, and physical safeguards over its systems of records" and seeks $10 billion in damages for disclosures that occurred in 2019 and 2020.

The leaks originated from Charles Edward Littlejohn, an IRS contractor who admitted to providing Trump's tax information and data on hundreds of thousands of wealthy Americans to The New York Times and ProPublica. Littlejohn pleaded guilty to unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and received the maximum sentence allowed: five years in prison, handed down in 2024.

Treasury didn't just shrug off the breach. Last week, the department canceled 31 contracts worth approximately $21 million with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH), where Littlejohn worked when he accessed the records.

Timing Is Everything

Trump famously broke modern presidential precedent in 2016 by refusing to release his tax returns. The 2020 Times investigation, built on the leaked data, revealed he paid just $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017, and paid no income tax in 10 of the previous 15 years, largely due to reported business losses.

Here's where the lawsuit gets interesting. Federal law allows taxpayers to sue the government for unauthorized disclosures made "knowingly, or by reason of negligence," but claims generally must be filed within two years. The Trump family argues they didn't know Littlejohn was the source until receiving IRS notices in December 2024, meaning the statute of limitations clock should start from that point, not from the original leak.

If the Trumps win, American taxpayers would fund the award. Critics have pointed out the unusual nature of potentially transferring billions in public funds to the sitting president and his family.