Feds charge IRS contractor with leaking wealthy taxpayers’ information

Federal prosecutors announced Friday that they have charged Charles Littlejohn, an IRS contractor, with leaking thousands of wealthy taxpayers’ information, including that of a major government official, to two news outlets.

Leaks had been a severe black eye for the tax agency and the arrest deepened the embarrassment with the revelation that a contractor had enough access to steal — and distribute — so much information.

Court documents didn’t reveal the name of the public official nor the two media outlets that received the leaks, but the IRS had been searching for the culprit or culprits who leaked then-President Donald Trump’s tax information to The New York Times and who gave a “vast cache” of IRS information about wealthy Americans to ProPublica.

Republicans said the arrest only deepens questions about “the largest breach of confidential tax information in American history.”

“The American people deserve to know the facts about this breach of trust, and [the inspector general], IRS, and Treasury must explain to the American people what happened and what is being done to make sure it never happens again,” said Rep. Jason Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Littlejohn was charged by way of a criminal information, which, like an indictment, initiates a criminal prosecution.

The document says Mr. Littlejohn worked at a consulting company from 2017 until 2021 where he had access to IRS tax returns.

“From in or about 2018 until in or about 2020, while Defendant was working on an IRS contract, he stole tax returns and return information associated with Public Official A and thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, including returns and return information dating back more than 15 years,” prosecutors said.

“He thereafter disclosed the tax information associated with Public Official A to News Organization 1 and the other tax information to News Organization 2. Both news organizations published numerous articles describing the tax information they obtained from the Defendant,” the information charged.

The document says the disclosures took place in West Virginia and elsewhere.

Republicans said the IRS has been playing loose with taxpayers’ information for years. They pointed to audits that found the agency ignored recommendations on computer and information security.

The ability of a contractor to have access to so much sensitive information also raised questions about the agency’s procedures.

“IRS guardrails failed to prevent this brazen breach of taxpayer rights,” said Sen. Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. “It goes without saying that resolving these and other ongoing security issues at the IRS, as well as identifying and making whole the individuals impacted by this breach, must be the IRS’s highest priority.”

The IRS said in a statement that it has taken steps over the last year to improve the protection of taxpayer information. It credited tens of billions of dollars Congress and President Biden provided to the agency in last year‘s budget-climate bill.

“Any disclosure of taxpayer information is unacceptable,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said. “The IRS has put in place new protocols and protections that tightened security, and our aggressive work in this critical area continues in order to protect the tax and financial information of taxpayers.”

ProPublica said the leak of files it obtained was 15 years of data on “thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people.” It called its report “the secret IRS files” and said they exposed “how the wealthiest avoid income tax.”

The Justice Department listed Mr. Littlejohn as a resident of the District of Columbia.

The Washington Times has reached out to his lawyer for comment.