Former Internal Revenue Service contractor Charles Littlejohn on Monday was sentenced to five years in jail for leaking former President Donald Trump's taxes to the New York Times.
NBC News reports that Littlejohn, who pleaded guilty to illegal tax disclosure this past October, not only leaked Trump's tax documents, but also for Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
The five-year sentence is the statutory maximum for the crimes committed, and prosecutors allege that Littlejohn "abused his position by unlawfully disclosing thousands of Americans’ federal tax returns and other private financial information to multiple news organizations."
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They also alleged that Littlejohn, "Weaponized his access to unmasked taxpayer data to further his own personal, political agenda, believing that he was above the law."
U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes was sharply critical of Littlejohn during his sentencing hearing.
"What you did in targeting the sitting president of the United States was an attack on our constitutional democracy," she argued.
Trump infamously refused to release his tax returns during his first run for the presidency, and the New York Times reported in the fall of 2020 that leaked returns showed Trump routinely suffered massive losses throughout his business career, and in 2017 he paid a mere $750 in federal income taxes.
