The man responsible for leaking former President Donald Trump’s tax records to the New York Times and ProPublica was sentenced to 60 months in prison on Monday, Courthouse News reports. Charles Littlejohn, 38, worked as a consultant with the IRS, where he leaked thousands of tax returns from the nation’s wealthiest people, including billionaire Elon Musk, Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott and about 7,600 others, as part of the “greatest heist in IRS history.” In the Justice Department’s sentencing memorandum, prosecutors described Littlejohn as intentionally applying to work at the IRS in 2017 to gain access to the then-president's tax returns, because he viewed Trump as “dangerous and a threat to democracy."
In a statement before the court, Littlejohn apologized, explaining his actions by saying, “We as a country make the best decision when we are all properly informed." U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes highlighted the unprecedented nature of Littlejohn’s case as she passed down the five-year sentence in Washington federal court. “What you did, in targeting the sitting president of the United States, was an attack on our democracy,” said Reyes, who drew a comparison between Littlejohn and defendants charged with attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, noting that both represent an apparent trend in society where people feel the need to break the law to “further their political goals.”