A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service was charged Friday with leaking tax information to news outlets about hundreds of the country’s wealthiest people.
Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, DC, is accused of stealing the tax return information and giving it to 2 different news outlets between 2018 and 2020, the Justice Department said in a press release. Littlejohn declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press, which also left a message for his attorney, Lisa Manning.
The outlets aren’t named in charging documents, but the outline and time-frame align with stories about former President Donald Trump’s tax returns in The Latest York Times and reporting about wealthy Americans’ taxes within the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica.
Each organizations published quite a few articles concerning the tax information, a few of which dated back greater than 15 years, charging documents state.
Charles Edward Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor, is accused of stealing the tax return information and giving it to 2 different news outlets between 2018 and 2020.UPI
A message searching for comment was left for the newspaper.
ProPublica reported in 2021 on a trove of tax-return data concerning the wealthiest Americans. It found the 25 richest people legally pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than many strange staff do.
A spokesman for the outlet declined to comment on the costs, adding that ProPublica reporters have previously said they don’t know the identity of the source. The stories sparked calls for reform and for an investigation into the leak of tax information, which has specific legal protections.
The Latest York Times published stories about former President Donald Trump’s tax returns.AP
Littlejohn is charged with one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information. He faces as much as five years in prison if convicted.
The IRS declined to comment specifically on the case, but Commissioner Danny Werfel said “any disclosure of taxpayer information is unacceptable” and the agency has since tightened security.
