Last week, a former contractor for the IRS was sentenced to prison for unlawfully disclosing tax records related to former President Donald Trump. The disclosed records indicated that the ex-president had, in fact, paid a tax rate higher than what certain critics on the left had alleged.
Charles Littlejohn has been handed a five-year prison sentence following an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of the ex-president’s tax records to the press. Littlejohn, who was initially charged in September, was accused of improperly revealing details from a tax return related to a government official.
The subsequent month, he confessed to unlawfully divulging ten years’ worth of Trump’s confidential tax records. Littlejohn acknowledged transmitting this sensitive information to the New York Times.
U.S. District Court Judge Ana C. Reyes delivered the verdict and imposed a $5,000 fine on the former contractor.
The judge expressed that an individual could be exemplary but still engage in wrongful deeds. Additionally, she conveyed to Littlejohn that his actions, specifically targeting the incumbent president of the United States, amounted to an assault on our constitutional democracy.
Former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn has been sentenced to five years in prison for leaking Trump’s tax returns. | @StrackHaley https://t.co/q4jQqIQWzH
— National Review (@NRO) January 31, 2024
Reyes contended that the Department of Justice (DOJ) ought to have filed additional charges against the former contractor, expressing her lack of words for the situation. She further characterized his actions as the most significant heist in the history of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
She drew a parallel between the former contractor’s actions and the protests at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, contending that his conduct instilled a similar sense of fear as the events of January 6.
Littlejohn appealed for leniency from the court, asserting that his actions stemmed from a genuine albeit misdirected belief that he was serving the public. His legal team contended that the former IRS employee was merely attempting to disclose information to the public.
In late 2018, Littlejohn uncovered and disclosed information about Trump by employing covert search terms to retrieve data from the IRS database. Reportedly, he then transferred the information to his personal website.
