Charles Littlejohn, the man who exposed thousands of tax returns for political gain by exposing the tax information of his political and ideological enemies, lost his appeal in federal court last week. The case reaffirms why the IRS must stop collecting nonprofit donor data, much of which was exposed by the leak. Our recently filed lawsuit, Young America’s Foundation v. IRS, comes from the Littlejohn leak. When YAF discovered that its information was disclosed by Littlejohn, NTUF’s Taxpayer Defense Center stepped in to represent the organization to end the collection of nonprofit donor data.
Between 2017 and 2019, Charles Littlejohn used his position as a government contractor for the IRS to access and leak the confidential tax return information of 405,000 individuals, businesses, and charities. He used temporary websites, hid data on his iPod, and tried to delete his snooping from his work laptop. He did it all for political reasons, disliking President Trump and those on the political right. Littlejohn was arrested and tried in the federal court in DC. But he made a sweetheart deal to only be charged with one count of improperly accessing tax information—getting 5 years in prison, 3 years probation, and a fine.
Nevertheless, Littlejohn appealed his sentence to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In a unanimous decision written by Judge Justin Walker (the panel also included Judge Neomi Rao and Senior Judge Judith Rogers), the D.C. Circuit affirmed Littlejohn’s conviction. It held the sentence was reasonable and that the trial judge properly weighed the harm caused by Littlejohn’s disclosures.
The damage caused by Littlejohn was immense: the trial judge called his leak an “attack [on] constitutional democracy.” His victims faced physical threats, lost business, and suffered reputational damage. The decision notes pages of letters from victims explaining “great distress” to “me and my family”; “reputational damage”; “economic impact”; “patently false assertions about the taxpayer’s tax compliance”; personal “threat[s]” to “our family”; “disparage[ment] countless times”; “lost business”; “reputational damage”; putting “our family’s safety” in “jeopard[y]”; “very real threats”; and “mental, emotional, and reputational consequences.” Groups like Young America’s Foundation and others reasonably fear that donors will shy away from continuing support if their name, address, and other vital information can be leaked for short-term political gain.
This is all the more reason why the government should be collecting less information, not more, about citizens and their ideological and charitable causes. The next Littlejohn cannot leak what the IRS never possesses. Ending these large scale data collections, like Form 990 Schedule B, is essential to protecting Americans.
Learn more about our lawsuit against IRS collection of donor information here.