Man Who Leaked Trump’s Tax Returns To Press Sentenced To 5 Years in Prison

A U.S. district judge compared the leaks to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Charles Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday for leaking former President Donald Trump’s tax records to the press.

Littlejohn, a 38-year-old former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service, pleaded guilty in October to one count of unauthorized disclosures of income tax returns. He leaked Trump’s tax records, as well as the tax records of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, to two news outlets between 2018 and 2020. He deleted the documents from his work laptop before returning it to the IRS.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said the leak was “an attack on our constitutional democracy,” according to CNN, and she compared it to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

In October, Reyes said that she was deeply troubled by Littlejohn’s actions.

“When we have people, for whatever reason, take the law into their own hands, society doesn’t function,” she said. “Make no mistake, this was not acceptable. If anyone tells you the ends justify the means, they’re wrong.”