OAN’s Brooke Mallory
2:33 PM – Friday, January 19, 2024
A former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) contractor took the position specifically to “steal and leak data” from President Donald Trump’s tax returns, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), which informed a sentencing judge on Wednesday.
Charles Littlejohn, 38, a resident of Washington, was accused of stealing and disclosing information connected to President Trump and other affluent public figures. Last year, he entered a guilty plea to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information.
Prosecutors presented a 15-page document advocating for the maximum five-year statutory term, citing Littlejohn’s breach of public trust in a crime that “merits significant punishment.”
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.”
Prosecutors claim that when President Trump won the presidency in 2017, Littlejohn rejoined Booz Allen “with the intention of accessing and disclosing” the president’s tax returns, deeming him “dangerous and a threat to democracy.” It was not reported why he previously left the company and his position of his own volition.
Littlejohn “used his access to unmasked taxpayer data as a weapon to further his own personal [and] political agenda, believing that he was above the law,” prosecutors say.
His efforts to steal tax information lasted around two years while he was still employed at the company. Littlejohn also released a number of documents to liberal and left-wing news outlets in exchange for money. In court filings, prosecutors did not identify the news outlets that obtained the pilfered tax returns; nonetheless, ProPublica and The New York Times has previously released a number of articles covering a Trump tax data leak.
The private tax returns of billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Peter Thiel, and others were made public by ProPublica in June 2021.
“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 said in the filing.
“Everyone is entitled to equal protection under the law,” they continued.
In its case for the maximum penalty, the prosecution contended that Littlejohn caused serious injury, including invasion of privacy and psychological anguish, by leaking the tax returns of more than a thousand people.
The allegation maintains that the criminal activity of Littlejohn “has undermined public faith and confidence in the IRS, an institution that is critical to the effective functioning of our government.”
According to the complaint, by the end of the year, Littlejohn had created “a sophisticated, detailed plan” to covertly obtain President Trump’s tax returns from a specific internal IRS database. He had gained access to unmasked taxpayer data in February of that year.
Littlejohn also used “more generalized parameters” to look for the president’s private information while still gathering information on his tax returns in order to avoid drawing attention to himself.
Littlejohn uploaded the stolen information to a secret website that he controlled, taking advantage of a flaw in IRS processes to extract the material covertly. He then downloaded the contents onto a personal computer and copied them to an Apple iPad that he set up to function as a personal hard drive.
Additionally, it states that Littlejohn destroyed and altered records of his disclosures in order to hinder the inquiry into his actions.
How officials were able to identify Littlejohn’s illicit actions is not fully clear.
A Booz Allen company spokesperson made a statement regarding the recent charges.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the actions of this individual, who was active with the company years ago. We have zero tolerance for violations of the law and operate under the highest ethical and professional guidelines. We fully supported the U.S. government in its investigation into this matter,” the spokesperson said.
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