Cannot delete gnutar file from Trash

Thanks for posting in the Apple Support Communities labesamis,

We understand you're unable to empty your trash, due to a message stating a file contained in Trash is needed by the system. We'll be happy to help!

First, have you tried restarting your Mac normally since encountering the message? This may seem like a simple step, but the reason it's relevant, is macOS won't typically use items that are in the Trash. So you may be able to empty the trash normally after restarting if that hasn't yet been done.

The following page offers some additional steps, including restarting your Mac in safe mode: If you can't empty the Trash on your Mac

If the behavior persists, we recommend connecting with an Apple technical expert here: Contact Apple Support

Cheers!

I have the exact same problem. Went to clean up a pile of "Previously Relocated Items", and there's a gnutar alias from 2015 which the computer refuses to delete, even after a restart, and trying to "sudo rm" it still gives "rm: gnutar: Operation not permitted" even though I'm an admin and it lists its permissions as writable:

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root  wheel    12B Jan  4  2015 gnutar -> /usr/bin/tar