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Gregg Jarrett Sizes Up Whether Trump Has Strong Case Against IRS

Gregg Jarrett Predicts How Trump Will Fare In IRS Suit (Screenshot/Fox Business)

Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett said Friday that President Donald Trump has a strong legal case against the IRS over the unlawful disclosure of his tax records.

Trump filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking at least $10 billion in damages from the IRS and the Treasury Department, alleging federal officials improperly allowed his tax records to be released in 2019. Jarrett argued on “The Evening Edit” that the executive branch cannot escape accountability when sensitive taxpayer information leaks under its watch.

“Well, I think they are responsible for it,” Jarrett said when host Elizabeth MacDonald asked if the IRS is responsible for outside contractors violating the law. “For example, this lawsuit by Trump really does have merit. The IRS had a duty to safeguard and protect his tax returns from public disclosure, as well as the hundreds of thousands of other hardworking Americans who had their returns leaked. That’s privileged, confidential information.”

Jarrett said the release of Trump’s tax records produced a clear and measurable fallout.

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“The harm to Trump was quite obvious. Damage to his business reputation, his political campaign, his personal reputation, because it portrayed him, as you saw with Rachel Maddow, in a false light that negatively impacted his businesses,” Jarrett said. “How many people believed Maddow, even though, as you describe it, it was a nothing burger?”

Jarrett said the IRS acknowledged the tax-record breach only years after the damage was already done.

“But sure, the IRS eventually came clean. They apologized, but guess what? It was four years too late. Now, whether it’s worth 10 billion in damages, that’s hard to say, but it would certainly be a big chunk of change if Trump actually prevails,” Jarrett said.

Former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn received a five-year federal prison sentence in January 2024 after he pleaded guilty to unlawfully disclosing roughly 15 years of Trump’s tax returns. Prosecutors said Littlejohn accessed the records while working as a government contractor and then provided them to The New York Times and ProPublica without authorization.

The New York Times published a report in September 2020 based on the leaked materials, claiming Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017. Trump disputed the reporting at the time, calling the story false and arguing that the media relied on information obtained in violation of federal law.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Fox Business)