President Donald Trump has sued the US Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service for at least 10 billion dollars, alleging that federal agencies failed to protect his confidential tax records, which were unlawfully leaked to the press during his first term.

The case raises the prospect of a substantial taxpayer-funded payout and places a sitting president in the unusual position of suing the government he oversees.

Filed Thursday in federal court in Miami, the lawsuit names the Treasury, the IRS, and senior officials, and is brought by Trump, his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, and the Trump Organization.

It revives a political and legal battle that flared ahead of the 2020 election, when the New York Times published a detailed investigation into Trump’s finances based on leaked IRS data.

That leak was traced to Charles Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor who pleaded guilty to stealing Trump’s tax records and disclosing them to journalists.

Littlejohn also accessed and leaked tax data belonging to thousands of other wealthy Americans, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin. He was sentenced to five years in prison in January 2024.

Trump’s legal claim argues that the breach was not merely the act of a rogue contractor, but a systemic failure.

The IRS and Treasury, the suit says, had a legal duty to safeguard sensitive taxpayer data and failed to deploy adequate screening, monitoring and security systems to prevent the disclosure.

The case puts Trump in a rare and awkward posture: as president, his own Justice Department will ultimately decide whether to fight the claim or seek a settlement.

The lawsuit adds to a widening web of legal actions Trump and his businesses have launched against media organizations and financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase. Across these cases, Trump is now seeking more than $50 billion in damages.