The former IRS contractor responsible for leaking former President Donald Trump’s tax information to news outlets has been sentenced to five years in prison. Thirty-eight-year-old Charles Edward Littlejohn received the maximum sentence on Monday, Jan. 29, handed down by U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes.
“What you did in targeting the sitting president of the United States was an attack on our constitutional democracy,” Reyes said.
Littlejohn pleaded guilty in October as prosecutors said he leaked tax data to The New York Times and ProPublica between 2018 and 2020. Littlejohn not only leaked Trump’s tax returns, but also the returns of billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
Prosecutors called the leaks “unparalleled in the IRS’s history” and argued that Littlejohn applied to be an IRS contractor to get Trump’s tax returns and figured out how to search for records without sounding alarms. Prosecuters added that he “weaponized his access to unmasked taxpayer data to further his own personal, political agenda, believing that he was above the law.”
During the sentencing hearing, Littlejohn apologized for his actions.
“I acted out of a sincere, if misguided, belief I was serving the public interest,” Littlejohn said.
Littlejohn was also fined $5,000 and will be under three years of supervised release following his prison sentence. Judge Reyes said the crime was so extraordinary that the punishment must “deter others who might feel an obligation to break the law.”
