A 38-year-old man who used to work with the IRS as a federal contractor was just charged with stealing Trump’s tax returns and leaking them to the media.
The two news publications who obtained the information were likely the New York Times and ProPublica.
Here’s more via CNN:
Federal prosecutors announced charges Friday against a contractor with the Internal Revenue Service who allegedly stole the tax returns of a high-ranking government official. A source familiar with the matter told CNN that official is former President Donald Trump.
The man, 38-year-old Charles Edward Littlejohn, worked with the IRS from 2018 to 2020, according to court documents. During his contract, Littlejohn allegedly stole “tax returns and return information associated with Public Official A” and disclosed that information to a news organization.
Though the official is not named in court documents, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN the tax returns in question were Trump’s.
In addition to the former president’s tax documents, Littlejohn is also accused of stealing IRS information on “thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, including returns and return information dating back more than 15 years.” Littlejohn then sent that tax information to a second unnamed news organization.
CNN indicates that both the New York Times and ProPublica published numerous news articles on the taxes around this time frame, which suggests they are the unnamed media organizations:
“Both news organizations published numerous articles describing the tax information they obtained from the Defendant,” court documents said.
The New York Times and ProPublica both published articles based on tax records of the former president and other wealthy Americans around the same timeframe – in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Court records do not name the news organizations, which have not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Littlejohn is charged with one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information and faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
A spokesperson for ProPublica said in a statement to CNN that “ProPublica doesn’t know the identity of the source who provided this trove of information on the taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans.”
CNN has reached out to The New York Times and Trump for comment.
I’m glad they are prosecuting this chump but I am a little surprised. I hope this leftist gets as much of that five years as possible, but it won’t shock me if he just gets a slap on the wrist.