An IRS contractor who stole and leaked confidential taxpayer information on over 7,600 Americans, a brazen crime that could have landed him in prison for decades was instead charged with just one count of “unauthorized disclosure” and given a lenient sentence – after one of those whose information he leaked was then-President Donald Trump.
Now Congress wants to know if this is another example of Trump being targeted by the legal system.
U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent a letter to Nicole Argentierti, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice Criminal Division, “opening an inquiry into the DOJ's unusual and questionable leniency towards Charles Littlejohn, an IRS contractor who leaked tax information belonging to over 7,600 Americans, including President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Senator Rick Scott (R-FL),” the Committee announced.
“The DOJ's decision to pursue just one charge for thousands of separate criminal acts is highly concerning, and the Committee worries that the DOJ's decision may be politically motivated,” the Committee notes.
“The Committee is conducting oversight of the Department of Justice's enforcement of federal law,” the letter reads. “Recently, the Department allowed a defendant, Charles Littlejohn, to plead guilty to only one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax information even though he admitted to leaking ‘thousands of individuals' and entities' tax returns' to ProPublica and the New York Times.”
“The Department's decision to pursue just one charge for ‘thousands' of separate criminal acts is highly concerning, and we worry that the Department's decision may be politically motivated,” the letter states.
“The details of Mr. Littlejohn's criminal activity are shocking. As the Department's filings state, Mr. Littlejohn applied to work at Booz Allen in 2017 with the intention of working as a consultant to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to access and disclose then-President Donald Trump's tax returns. Mr. Littlejohn successfully did so and further leaked tax information belonging to over 7,600 other Americans, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Senator Rick Scott,” the letter continues.
As the Justice Department stated:
“The scope and scale of Defendant's unlawful disclosures appear to be unparalleled in the IRS's history. There simply is no precedent for a case involving the disclosure of tax return and return information associated with ‘over a thousand' individuals and entities. . . . the human impact of Defendant's crimes is enormous.
“The Department nevertheless chose to charge Mr. Littlejohn with just one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax information, resulting in a 5-year prison sentence, three years supervised release, and a $5,000 fine During Mr. Littlejohn's sentencing hearing, Judge Ana Reyes called Mr. Littlejohn's disclosure of President Trump's tax returns an ‘attack on our constitutional democracy.' She admonished the Department's plea deal, saying, ‘The fact that he is facing one felony count, I have no words for,'” the letter adds. “The Committee must understand the Department's unusual and questionable leniency towards Mr. Littlejohn.”
The lawmakers are asking the Justice Department to turn over:
1. All documents and communications between or among employees of the Department of Justice referring or relating to the charging decisions in United States v. Charles E. Littlejohn;
2. All documents and communications between employees of the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service referring or relating to the charging decisions in United States v. Charles E. Littlejohn.”
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