Incident Details
- Date of Incident
- September 29, 2023
- Location
- Washington, District of Columbia
An IRS consultant was charged on Sept. 29, 2023, with leaking the tax returns of a high-ranking government official and those of thousands of the country’s wealthiest individuals to two news outlets.
IRS consultant gets five years for leaking tax returns to media
Charles Littlejohn, a contractor for the Internal Revenue Service who leaked tax returns to media outlets, was sentenced on Jan. 29, 2024, to the maximum five years in prison, plus three years probation and a $5,000 fine, for the unauthorized disclosures, according to news accounts and to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Under the terms of a plea agreement, Littlejohn admitted to accessing the tax return information of a “high-ranking government official” from 2018 to 2020 and disclosing it to a news organization. ABC News reported at the time that the official was former President Donald Trump. Trump’s tax returns were leaked to The New York Times in 2020.
Littlejohn also admitted to accessing IRS data associated with “thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people” in 2020 and sharing them with a second news organization, reported by several news outlets to be ProPublica. It published a series titled “The Secret IRS Files” in June 2021 that relied on what it called “a vast cache” of tax documents.
ProPublica and five of its journalists were each served subpoenas on Aug. 22, 2023, in connection with an ongoing lawsuit against the IRS by hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin.
Ruling that Littlejohn should receive the maximum sentence allowable for the charge against him, Judge Ana Reyes called his disclosure of Trump’s filings “an attack on our constitutional democracy,” Politico reported. “It cannot be open season on our elected officials,” she said.
Charles Littlejohn, a contractor for the Internal Revenue Service, was charged on Sept. 29, 2023, with disclosing tax returns without authorization, leaking the information to two news organizations.
A U.S. Department of Justice press release announcing the charges alleged that Littlejohn stole the tax return information associated with an unnamed “high-ranking government official” and disclosed it to an unidentified news organization. ABC News reported that an individual familiar with the matter confirmed that the government official was former President Donald Trump. Trump’s tax returns extending over more than two decades were leaked to The New York Times in 2020.
The DOJ also alleged that Littlejohn stole tax return information for thousands of the country’s wealthiest individuals and shared it with a second unnamed news organization. Several news accounts reported that the unnamed news organization appeared to be ProPublica. That outlet published a series titled “The Secret IRS Files” in June 2021, which relied on what it called “a vast cache” of tax documents.
ProPublica and five of its journalists were each served subpoenas on Aug. 22 in connection with an ongoing lawsuit against the IRS by hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin.
Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., is charged with one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison if convicted, the DOJ said.
IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel told The Hill in a statement that any disclosure of taxpayer information is unacceptable, but declined to comment on the charges against Littlejohn.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
