President Joe Biden is facing pressure to commute the sentence of Charles Littlejohn, the former IRS consultant who leaked the tax returns of Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and other wealthy individuals.
Left-wing groups Revolving Door Project and Patriotic Millionaires are leading the charge. The groups organized a December letter to Biden from four tax law professors—the University of Michigan's Reuven Avi-Yonah, the University of Missouri's David Gamage, Indiana University's Goldburn Maynard, and Emory University's Alex Zhang—arguing that Littlejohn acted in the public interest when he illegally leaked the returns to ProPublica.
The groups' respective leaders, Bob Lord and Kenny Stancil, made a similar argument in a Rolling Stone op-ed, which said Littlejohn performed "a valuable public service." They also launched a website that encourages visitors to send a template letter to Biden featuring identical language.
"By leaking this information to reputable journalists," the letter says, "Mr. Littlejohn enabled vital reporting about how the wealthiest people in the United States end up paying less in taxes than public school teachers and firefighters."
The campaign comes as Biden issues a string of controversial pardons and commutations—and vows to issue more before leaving office in the coming weeks. It also reflects a growing appetite on the left to embrace criminals who target the wealthy. In their letter to Biden, for example, the tax law professors argued that criminal deterrence is not necessary in Littlejohn's case because "most IRS employees do not value the public's right to know over their own personal freedom." The University of Michigan's Avi-Yonah, meanwhile, called Littlejohn a "public hero."
Littlejohn's leaks fueled a 2021 ProPublica report titled, "The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax." The outlet touted its "unprecedented look inside the financial lives of America's titans, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, and Mark Zuckerberg." It targeted Griffin and other wealthy Americans, including Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, in a series of follow-up pieces.
ProPublica did not, however, detail the tax returns of its largest donors, including liberal billionaires Laurene Powell Jobs, David Filo, and Pierre Omidyar, in its initial report, the Washington Free Beacon reported at the time.
Years later, in October 2023, Littlejohn pleaded guilty to illegally disclosing income tax return information. Though the tax law professors argued in their letter to Biden that Littlejohn faced a maximum sentence of 10 months, the charges actually carry a maximum sentence of five years under federal law. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes handed Littlejohn that five-year sentence in January 2024.
"We're talking about someone who … pulled off the biggest heist in IRS history," Reyes said during the sentencing hearing, calling Littlejohn's actions "a threat to our democracy." The IRS apologized to Griffin for the leaks five months later, acknowledging its failure "to prevent Mr. Littlejohn's criminal conduct."
Should Biden heed the campaign's call and commute Littlejohn's sentence, the move would almost certainly prompt congressional outrage. In the buildup to Littlejohn's sentencing hearing, Republican lawmakers urged Reyes to "throw the book" at Littlejohn.
"Mr. Littlejohn took the law into his own hands and decided he knew what was best," wrote the lawmakers, led by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Jason Smith. "Mr. Littlejohn's actions showed disdain for the rule of law and American confidence in our voluntary tax system."
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. A ProPublica spokeswoman said the outlet "didn't know the identity of the source who provided this trove of IRS files."
"After careful deliberation, ProPublica published select, newsworthy tax details of some of the richest Americans to inform the debate about the fairness of our tax system," the spokeswoman said. "These stories clearly served the public interest."
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