House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith and other Republicans have urged a federal judge to impose the maximum penalty of five years in jail for Charles Edward Littlejohn, an IRS consultant who leaked tax returns of former President Donald Trump and others to the media.
Littlejohn pleaded guilty to illegally stealing and disclosing tax return information, and the Republicans criticized the Justice Department for charging him with only one count despite evidence of multiple violations.
Littlejohn’s defense argued for leniency, claiming he acted out of a moral belief, while Republicans condemned his actions as a breach of public trust and an attempt to influence a presidential election.
“The prosecution of Charles Edward Littlejohn for illegally leaking President Trump’s tax returns to ProPublica and the New York Times will fail to deter future IRS leakers unless the sentence imposed in this case sends a strong message to other would-be criminals,” Smith said.
“Mr. Littlejohn executed a plan over many years to seek out a position with the IRS for the purpose of exposing the private information of Americans to further his political agenda,” he said.
“I hope the court imposes a sentence that sends a strong signal that the consequences for this type of action are severe,” Smith said.
“First, we are concerned about the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) determination to plead Mr. Littlejohn to a single count of unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer information when the facts clearly warrant additional charges,” lawmakers wrote.
“Given that Mr. Littlejohn admitted to not only obstructing the DOJ’s investigation, but also to making multiple, distinct illegal disclosures of taxpayer information, a plea to one count of unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer information appears insufficient on its face.”
They noted that Littlejohn “admitted to committing two separate acts related to misappropriation of taxpayer information: stealing and disclosing private tax information associated with former President Donald J. Trump to The New York Times; and also stealing private tax information associated with thousands of individuals and disclosing this information to ProPublica.”
“Mr. Littlejohn took the law into his own hands and decided he knew what was best,” they wrote. “Mr.Littlejohn’s actions showed disdain for the rule of law and American confidence in our voluntary tax system.”
“He acted with an apparent political motivation and perhaps with an intent to impact a Presidential election,” they added. “So that similar conduct is deterred in the future, we respectfully ask that you sentence Mr. Littlejohn to the maximum sentence of five years.”
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