Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump has found a(nother) reason to sue the federal government. Yesterday, he and his two eldest sons filed a civil suit against the IRS, demanding $10 billion in damages ostensibly caused by the leak of (some of) Trump's tax returns to The New York Times in 2020.
This suit has absolutely no chance of actually prevailing in court. There are numerous reasons, but we'll just give the three most significant. The first is that the alleged cause of action has a statute of limitations of 2 years. The year 2020, of course, was 6 years ago. The Trumps are claiming that they didn't know about the leak until 2024, so the statute did not begin to toll until then. However, for that to be true, it would mean not only that they were utterly unaware of the Times' coverage, but it also took them 4+ years to notice the alleged $10 billion in damages.
The second problem is that the leak was actually the work of a government contractor, Charles Littlejohn, who has already been sentenced for his misdeeds. Persuading a judge, or a jury, that the IRS is responsible for the criminal acts of a contractor is a tall hill to climb.
The third problem is TEN BILLION DOLLARS IN DAMAGES. In the years since the leak, Trump has been reelected president and has made billions and billions of dollars in grift. How can he possibly argue/demonstrate that, but for the leak, he'd have $10 billion more in the bank? And, perhaps more to the point, how can he argue/demonstrate that without undergoing discovery? He would have to throw open the books of the Trump Organization and all his other businesses, which is something he does not want to do.
No, there is no way that this is a legitimate suit. That means it has some other purpose. What might that purpose be? We have three possibilities:
It could be one of these, it could be several. But we feel pretty good that we've gotten pretty close to the heart of the matter. (Z)