OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
2:40 PM – Monday, January 29, 2024
Charles Littlejohn, the man who stole former President Donald Trump’s tax records and later released them to a number of left-wing news outlets, has been sentenced to five years in prison.
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On Monday, Littlejohn, a former tax employee who unlawfully leaked Trump’s personal tax records to media platforms, was sentenced to five years in prison. In addition, he must spend an extra three years under supervised release and pay a $5,000 fine for his wrongdoings.
Between 2008 and 2013, Littlejohn worked for Booz Allen, a consulting business that primarily handled IRS contracts for public and private customers. While there, he had access to “vast amounts of unmasked taxpayer data.”
While employed as a contractor, Littlejohn stole tax information from Trump, along with thousands of other affluent and well-known public figures.
The private tax returns of billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Peter Thiel, and others were made public by the left-leaning outlet ProPublica in June 2021.
Littlejohn, 38, pleaded guilty in October to one count of illegal disclosures of income tax records.
The former tax worker disclosed the private information to at least two media outlets and removed the records from his IRS-assigned computer before returning it. Later, he erased the locations where he had originally saved the data, covering the remainder of his digital footprint.
Prior to Littlejohn’s sentencing on Monday, federal District Judge Ana Reyes described his offense as “an attack on our constitutional democracy.”
“He targeted the sitting president of the United States of America, and that is exceptional by any measure,” said Reyes. “It cannot be open season on our elected officials.”
Reyes also repeatedly emphasized the seriousness of the offense, comparing it to an assault on the United States and its legal system.
“What you did in attacking the sitting president of the United States was an attack on our constitutional democracy,” Reyes added. “We’re talking about someone who … pulled off the biggest heist in IRS history.”
Additionally, Reyes compared Littlejohn’s wrongdoings to those of the January 6th, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach, asserting that his actions were “also a threat to our democracy.”
“It engenders the same fear that January 6th does,” Reyes added.
Littlejohn, according to the prosecution, took extreme measures to obtain the tax records covertly. He did so by downloading data to an Apple iPad, uploading it to a private website that he later removed, and taking advantage of certain system flaws.
Reyes also took issue with the Justice Department’s choice to file a single count of charges against Littlejohn.
“The fact that he did what he did and he’s facing one felony count, I have no words for,” the judge said. Prosecutors argued that the one count covers the multitude of Littlejohn’s thefts and leaks.
“A free press and public engagement with the media are critical to any healthy democracy, but stealing and leaking private, personal tax information strips individuals of the legal protection of their most sensitive data,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
Littlejohn acknowledged his crimes in a short statement to the court, claiming that he had been mindful of its possible consequences at the time, however, he was motivated by a “desire for transparency.”
“I made my decision with full knowledge that I would likely end up in a courtroom to answer for my serious crime,” Littlejohn said in court on Monday. “I used my skills to systematically violate the privacy of thousands of people.”
Littlejohn also said, “I acted out of a sincere misguided belief,” and that he was serving the nation and that people had a right to the tax information.
“We as a country make the best decisions when we are all properly informed,” Littlejohn added. “My actions undermine the fragile faith.”
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