An IRS consultant who leaked President Trump’s tax records was properly sent to prison for five years, the DC Appeals Court ruled.
Charles Littlejohn obtained his position in 2017 “so he could steal and leak the tax returns of President Donald Trump,” Judge Justin Walker stated.
According to Littlejohn, “the American people should have the opportunity to see the tax returns of the sitting president before they decided on how they were going to vote.”
To make this happen, Littlejohn searched an IRS database before loading Trump’s tax data onto a private website. This action avoided the detection protocols of a regular download.
Littlejohn then stored the data in several locations, including an Apple iPod.
“Yes, iPod, not iPad,” the judge noted.
Littlejohn leaked Trump’s tax data to the New York Times, which ran articles about the information in weeks leading up to the 2020 election.
In addition, Littlejohn distributed the tax data from over 7,000 wealthy Americans to ProPublica, which published dozens of articles about more than 150 taxpayers.
“As a result of Littlejohn’s crime, his victims lost business,” Walker stated. “They were disparaged countless times, and their families were physically threatened.”
In 2023, Littlejohn pleaded guilty to disclosing tax returns without authorization. He received the maximum sentence of five years in prison, along with three years of supervised release, a $5,000 fine, and 300 hours of community service.
On appeal, the DC Appeals court upheld Littlejohn’s sentence, noting that the district judge had an “open mind.”
“The court expressed sympathy for Littlejohn and discussed the 29 letters from his friends and family, that uniformly spoke to a person of immense intelligence, deep caring, and unwavering loyalty,” Walker wrote.
He added that the court was not unduly influenced by a letter signed by 25 members of Congress, and that the court explained the sentence in a two-hour hearing.
“One reason was the intentional targeting of a sitting president. Another reason was the intentional targeting of Littlejohn’s other victims,” Walker wrote. “Another reason was the elaborate nature of Littlejohn’s multi-year scheme.”
“And yet another reason was the ongoing harm to victims who did not know (and still do not know) when the next ProPublica article will drop,” he added, “possibly hurting their businesses, harming their reputations, and jeopardizing their physical safety.”
