Imprisoned former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn improperly leaked information of over 400,000 taxpayers, a far greater number than the agency previously disclosed.
Acting IRS Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell wrote a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) earlier this month notifying him that Littlejohn’s illegal disclosures impacted 405, 427 taxpayers, 89 percent of which were business entities.
The House Judiciary Committee publicized O’Donnell’s letter Tuesday as part of Jordan’s investigation into the leaked tax returns. Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison in January 2024 for leaking thousands of tax returns in 2019 and 2020, including those of President Donald Trump.
“The Obama IRS targeted conservatives. The Biden IRS leaked your data,” Jordan said on X. Jordan is also chairman of a subcommittee focused on uncovering left-wing weaponization of the federal government.
The IRS said it mailed notification letters to all the taxpayers impacted by Littlejohn’s illegal actions. The agency also set up an email for taxpayer inquiries and disclosed information about Littlejohn’s leaks on its website.
Before its latest notification, the IRS indicated that Littlejohn’s leaks impacted an estimated 70,000 taxpayers, roughly 17 percent of the total. The IRS told Jordan it is still gathering materials necessary to respond to the entirety of his inquiry.
Littlejohn admitted to using the IRS archive to access the tax returns and leaked them to the New York Times and ProPublica, a left-wing outlet that has participated in progressives’s push to delegitimize the Supreme Court. Littlejohn leaked the tax returns of billionaires such as Peter Thiel, Warren Buffett, and Jeff Bezos, and then deleted evidence of his disclosures to obstruct the criminal investigation.
A former Booz Allen Hamilton consultant, Littlejohn’s attorneys argued that he believed the American people deserved to know Trump’s tax information. Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns became a Democratic obsession before and during his first term because of his wealth and real estate holdings.
Littlejohn entered a guilty plea with the Biden Justice Department to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax return and return information in October 2023. He received the maximum sentence for his crimes and is currently serving time in a Florida prison.
“Charles Littlejohn abused his position as a consultant at the Internal Revenue Service by disclosing thousands of Americans’ federal tax returns and other private financial information to news organizations. He violated his responsibility to safeguard the sensitive information that was entrusted to his care, and now he is a convicted felon,” acting assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri of the Justice Department’s criminal division said last year.
Littlejohn was lionized by progressive critics of billionaires for paying too little in taxes compared to their overall wealth. Critics accused Littlejohn of abusing the IRS’s mandate and undermining public confidence in the privacy of tax filings.