1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

I’m writing as a constituent to urge you to use Congress’s oversight and legislative authority to stand up to President Donald J. Trump and his family’s apparent attempt to use the machinery of the federal government for personal gain. On January 30, 2026, President Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization filed a lawsuit seeking at least $10 billion from the IRS and the Treasury Department, alleging the agencies failed to prevent an IRS contractor, Charles Littlejohn, from unlawfully disclosing their tax information to the press in 2019–2020. Littlejohn has already been prosecuted and sentenced to prison for the disclosure. Confidential taxpayer data must be protected—full stop. If federal systems failed, Congress should insist on accountability and stronger controls. But this case is uniquely alarming because it places taxpayers at risk of underwriting a massive payout to a sitting president and his family, creating an obvious conflict-of-interest and a corrosive precedent: a president using the leverage of the executive branch while simultaneously demanding an extraordinary transfer of public funds to himself. The underlying tax disclosures also intersect with longstanding public concerns about transparency and accountability. Major reporting on Trump’s finances has described years in which he paid little or no federal income tax, and reporting has also raised questions about overseas business activity and taxes paid abroad. Even if one believes the leak itself was unlawful (and the courts have already treated it that way), the remedy cannot be for the president to pressure or steer the federal government toward a windfall settlement. I urge you to take concrete, immediate steps: Demand a formal “firewall” and recusal plan ensuring the White House has zero involvement in litigation strategy, settlement discussions, or agency decision-making related to this lawsuit. Hold oversight hearings (Ways & Means; Oversight; Judiciary; Appropriations) on (a) taxpayer data security failures and (b) safeguards against presidential self-dealing when the executive branch is a defendant. Require transparency: written certifications from Treasury/IRS/DOJ detailing who has had contact with whom, and what controls are in place to prevent political interference. Protect the Treasury: pursue legislative guardrails requiring enhanced congressional notification and review before any settlement above a significant threshold when the plaintiff is a sitting president, the president’s family, or a president-controlled business entity. Strengthen taxpayer-data protections for contractor access and monitoring—so this never happens again to anyone—without turning a security failure into a vehicle for personal enrichment. This isn’t about partisanship; it’s about the constitutional principle that no president should be able to convert public power into private payout. Congress has both the authority and the obligation to prevent that. Please let me know what actions you will take, and whether you will support hearings and legislative safeguards to ensure that taxpayer dollars cannot be “claimed” by a president who is simultaneously positioned to influence the executive agencies involved.