Former IRS contractor pleads guilty on Trump leaked tax returns

A former IRS contractor pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of leaking tax information about former President Trump and others to news outlets between 2018 and 2020.

Charles Littlejohn, 38, was charged by the Justice Department last month for disclosing tax return information on “thousands of the nation’s wealthiest individuals” to a news organization, as well as passing along tax information associated with “a high-ranking government official” to a different news outlet. He pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax return and return information.

“By using his role as a government contractor to gain access to private tax information, steal that information, and disclose it publicly, Charles Littlejohn broke federal law and betrayed the public’s trust,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “In every case, the Department of Justice is committed to following the facts wherever they lead and holding accountable those who violate our laws.”

According to the Justice Department, Littlejohn provided one of the news organizations with information about a public official between August 2019 and October 2019. It noted that the news organization published a series of articles related to the public official in September 2020.

In July and August 2020, Littlejohn then took tax return information about the wealthiest individuals to a second news organization, which later published articles about the data.

While neither Trump nor the news outlets were named in the Justice Department press release, The Associated Press noted that the description of Littlejohn’s actions and the timeline of them coincided with reporting done by The New York Times and ProPublica about the former president’s tax returns.

He will be sentenced Jan. 29, 2024, and could face a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

The Associated Press contributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.