I sat in the audience in the federal courthouse in DC last week as Charles Littlejohn, 38, entered a plea of guilty to one charge of unauthorized release of tax returns. He confirmed in court that he was the IRS contractor who stole tax return data, leaking President Trump’s tax returns to the New York Times in 2019 and the tax returns of thousands of other taxpayers to ProPublica in 2020 (the group posted selective private information about 152 of those taxpayers).
Despite the multiple leaks affecting so many people, Littlejohn faces only one charge. As my colleague Andrew Wilford argues, this all seems disproportionately lenient, especially compared to how the IRS behaves with taxpayers. The IRS recently took Alexandru Bittner all the way to the Supreme Court over five years of an unfiled tax report about foreign bank accounts. The IRS demanded not five $10,000 fines for the five unfiled forms, but 272 - one for each unreported bank account each year - totaling $2.72 million. (The Supreme Court ruled against the IRS in that case.)
This leak was seemingly politically motivated - though prosecutors have released no information on this. Past leaks of IRS data have enabled identity theft and deterred taxpayers from being forthright in what they file. With some asking for the IRS to get access to even more data, these questions deserve answers.
A factual basis document released publicly today shows the precise mechanics of what Littlejohn did, and how he put enormous effort into covering his tracks. Rather than downloading the data and triggering an automated detection system, he uploaded it to a private website from two virtual machines he then destroyed, and downloaded the data from that website, storing the data in multiple places, including an iPod and a flash drive kept “inside the lining of a wooden leather box containing an ornamental camel.” He stole the Trump tax return in 2018 and then stole the additional data for the ProPublica leak in 2020 before leaving his IRS contractor job in 2021.
Judge Ana Reyes presided, and Littlejohn said little other than answering yes to questions on whether he understood the plea. A representative for President Trump spoke to request rejecting the plea agreement or at least imposing the maximum sentence (5 years imprisonment, a fine, and forfeiture of property used in the offense). Judge Reyes accepted the plea agreement, but also said she is inclined toward maximum sentence because taxpayers deserve privacy, disclosures make people less forthcoming and therefore make the IRS's job harder, and people shouldn't take the law into their own hands.
Sentencing is set for January 29, 2024. Littlejohn is currently released on personal recognizance, not having to pay a bond or bail, although he has surrendered his passport and promised to stay within the DC area until sentencing.