Miami, Fla. – Identifying a series of fatal defects with the legal basis for a lawsuit, a coalition of former government officials and two public interest organizations today filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Trump v. IRS – a case in U.S. District Court in Florida where President Trump is seeking to pocket “at least” $10 billion from the U.S. Treasury. Amici also suggest commonsense steps the court could take to protect against the president walking away with these taxpayer dollars though a one-sided process.
In an unprecedented lawsuit filed on January 29, 2026, President Trump sued the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service – both agencies he oversees – for $10 billion in taxpayers’ money. In the lawsuit, President Trump, his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, and their family business, the Trump Organization, are seeking damages after Trump’s personal tax documents were leaked to the press by a third-party contractor.
In public statements about those claims, the president acknowledged: “I brought a lawsuit. Essentially, the lawsuit’s been won. I guess I won a lotta money.“
The friend-of-the-court brief, submitted today by Democracy Forward on behalf of Common Cause, Project On Government Oversight, and four former government officials with combined decades of experience in federal tax law, details how the president’s control of both sides of the case raises serious concerns about collusive litigation tactics, as well as how the lawsuit is barred by several basic legal requirements including the statute of limitations. The four former officials include John Koskinen, who served as the 48th Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service; Kathryn Keneally, who served as the Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Tax Division; Nina Olson, who served as the National Taxpayer Advocate from 2001 to 2019; and Gilbert Rothenberg, who served as the Chief of the U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division, Appellate Section.
“The president’s corruption continues, this time in an attempt to take $10 billion dollars of the taxpayers’ money, which threatens to make a mockery out of our justice system,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “Not only does the president’s baseless case have significant legal defects, but there are colossal conflicts of interest at play. We thank these experts for raising these serious concerns about how President Trump is seeking to further illegally line his own pockets at the public’s expense and our brief urges the court to exercise its power to ensure the matter is not one-sided.”
Trump v. IRS is not the first time that the president has sought direct personal payment from the federal government. On December 15, 2025, Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit after the U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ) and the Treasury refused to release any records related to President Trump’s stunning effort to obtain a $230 million taxpayer-funded payout for investigations into his own misconduct — and the compromised process reportedly underway inside the DOJ to evaluate his demands.
Democracy Forward’s legal team involved in this brief includes Ayesha Kahn, Jyoti Jasrasaria, Pooja Boisture, and Tsuki Hoshijima. Read today’s friend-of-the-court brief in Trump v. IRS here.
– # # # –
Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.
