Charles Littlejohn, who was accused of disclosing thousands of confidential tax records, including those of Trump, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, was sentenced to five years in prison, the maximum requested by federal prosecutors, NBC reports.
BREAKING: Former IRS contractor who leaked former President Trump’s tax records has been sentenced to 5 years in prison. https://t.co/dLG0KfJ2p6
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 29, 2024
Last October, Littlejohn pleaded guilty to disclosing confidential financial information, including that of former President Donald Trump and thousands of wealthy Americans. Accused of accessing the IRS database, he stole private tax information, constituting a serious breach of IRS security.
From August to October 2019, Littlejohn allegedly transferred confidential data to various storage media, then providing it anonymously to several media outlets, including The New York Times.
Following the stolen data, the New York Times published several articles, highlighting that Trump had paid just $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017. Another article exposed the tax avoidance tactics of billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Court documents submitted as evidence indicated that Littlejohn had taken significant steps to destroy evidence in anticipation of an upcoming investigation, and these revelations would have increased the seriousness of his offense.
Littlejohn was scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes in Washington, D.C., on January 29, and the judge will ultimately impose the maximum sentence in this case.