Biden might issue a pardon for the individual who leaked Trump's tax documents
A former IRS employee has received a five-year sentence for improperly disclosing the income tax returns of affluent Americans. Read Full Article at RT.com.
TroibNews 
The administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden is reportedly considering commuting the sentence of Charles Littlejohn, as indicated by the Justice Department’s pardon database. Littlejohn, a former Internal Revenue Service employee, has been convicted of illegally disclosing the tax records of high-profile Americans, including those of US President-elect Donald Trump.
Littlejohn’s clemency review comes as Biden, who is set to leave the White House on January 20, has issued a record number of pardons and commutations, including ones for his son, Hunter Biden, concerning tax evasion and firearms violations.
Littlejohn was sentenced to the maximum penalty of five years in prison late last month after pleading guilty in October 2024. He admitted to stealing tax records from “thousands” of prominent US citizens and leaking that information to two media outlets: the New York Times and ProPublica. This incident has been characterized as the largest theft in Internal Revenue Service history.
In September 2020, the New York Times published an article revealing that Trump had paid only $750 in federal income taxes for both 2016 and 2017, and had paid nothing in many years due to greater losses than income. The following year, ProPublica released a series of articles based on the data provided by Littlejohn.
Neither the New York Times nor ProPublica has faced accusations of wrongdoing regarding their use of the leaked data. Following the revelation of the malpractice by the US Department of Justice in September 2023, the then-editor of the New York Times reiterated the press's right “to publish newsworthy information that was legally obtained by reporters” in an editor’s note. Additionally, a spokesperson for ProPublica informed CNN that the outlet “doesn’t know the identity of the source who provided this trove of information on the taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans.”
When congressional Democrats made some of Trump’s tax records public in late 2022, the president-elect, who had chosen not to release his returns due to an IRS audit, stated that the filings demonstrated his success as a real estate developer. “The Trump tax returns once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use tax depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises,” he said in a statement.
Sanya Singh contributed to this report for TROIB News
Littlejohn’s clemency review comes as Biden, who is set to leave the White House on January 20, has issued a record number of pardons and commutations, including ones for his son, Hunter Biden, concerning tax evasion and firearms violations.
Littlejohn was sentenced to the maximum penalty of five years in prison late last month after pleading guilty in October 2024. He admitted to stealing tax records from “thousands” of prominent US citizens and leaking that information to two media outlets: the New York Times and ProPublica. This incident has been characterized as the largest theft in Internal Revenue Service history.
In September 2020, the New York Times published an article revealing that Trump had paid only $750 in federal income taxes for both 2016 and 2017, and had paid nothing in many years due to greater losses than income. The following year, ProPublica released a series of articles based on the data provided by Littlejohn.
Neither the New York Times nor ProPublica has faced accusations of wrongdoing regarding their use of the leaked data. Following the revelation of the malpractice by the US Department of Justice in September 2023, the then-editor of the New York Times reiterated the press's right “to publish newsworthy information that was legally obtained by reporters” in an editor’s note. Additionally, a spokesperson for ProPublica informed CNN that the outlet “doesn’t know the identity of the source who provided this trove of information on the taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans.”
When congressional Democrats made some of Trump’s tax records public in late 2022, the president-elect, who had chosen not to release his returns due to an IRS audit, stated that the filings demonstrated his success as a real estate developer. “The Trump tax returns once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use tax depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises,” he said in a statement.
Sanya Singh contributed to this report for TROIB News
