A former Internal Revenue Service contractor accused of leaking the tax records of former President Donald Trump to the New York Times as well as the tax records of billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk to ProPublica has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Charles Littlejohn pleaded guilty to the charges last October. Prosecutors pushed for the maximum sentence of five years in federal prison, saying that Littlejohn “abused his position by unlawfully disclosing thousands of Americans’ federal tax returns and other private financial information to multiple news organizations.”
Prosecutors said that Littlejohn “weaponized his access to unmasked taxpayer data to further his own personal, political agenda, believing that he was above the law.”
During a hearing at the federal courthouse in Washington, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes sentenced Littlejohn and imposed a $5,000 fine.
“You can be an outstanding person and commit bad acts,” Reyes said. “What you did in targeting the sitting president of the United States was an attack on our constitutional democracy,” she added. as he did.
Littlejohn’s attorney argued that his client committed the offense “out of a deep, moral belief that the American people had a right to know the information and sharing it was the only way to effect change” and that he believed he was doing the right thing, NBC News reported.
While Littlejohn’s conduct was “inexcusable,” his lawyer added, and “breached the trust placed in him by the United States government and violated the privacy of thousands of taxpayers,” a “strong message of general deterrence” had already been sent to the public.
Littlejohn, 38, addressed the court during the sentencing, saying that he “acted out of a sincere but misguided belief that I was serving the public.”
Littlejohn added that he believes that Americans make their best decisions when properly informed.
“I made my decision with the full knowledge that I would likely end up in a courtroom,” he said.
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