WASHINGTON — A former Internal Revenue Service contractor who leaked President Trump’s tax returns to two media outlets also disclosed information about more than 405,000 other filers, the agency revealed to the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month.
The IRS previously said Charles Edward Littlejohn, 39, had exposed information on “more than 70,000” people and businesses in 2019 and 2020 when he provided ProPublica and the New York Times with copies of Trump’s tax returns.
Littlejohn is serving a five-year federal prison term in Florida after pleading guilty to the leaks and being sentenced in January 2024.
The IRS didn’t provide a reason for the dramatic leap in the number of affected taxpayers, but said it had mailed letters informing the victims.
“Relying on data analysis by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) and the IRS, the IRS mailed notifications to 405,427 taxpayers whose taxpayer information was inappropriately disclosed by Mr. Littlejohn,” the IRS wrote in a Feb. 14 letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
“Approximately 89% of the taxpayers are business entities.”
Jordan chairs a subcommittee focused on the alleged political weaponization of the federal government, including actions by the Justice Department.
The news outlets that received Littlejohn’s leaks ran dozens of articles, including on the tax filings of billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.
Supporters of the leaker describe him as a “hero” who gave a behind-the-scenes peek at how wealthy Americans reduce their tax bills, while critics slammed him for undermining public confidence in the privacy of tax filings and the apolitical administration of the IRS.
Prosecutors said Littlejohn’s prison sentence should serve as a “strong message” to others who have privileged access to tax records.
A Justice Department press release said the contractor was able to escape detection because he “uploaded the tax returns to a private website in order to avoid IRS protocols established to detect and prevent large downloads or uploads from IRS devices or systems.”
