Charles Littlejohn, 38, pleaded guilty in October and District Judge Ana Reyes imposed the maximum sentence of five years in prison on Monday.
Littlejohn was accused by federal prosecutors of leaking the tax returns of a “senior government official” to a media outlet.
Neither the official nor the media outlet were officially identified, but the American press reported that the statements were from Trump and the person who received them was The New York Times.
In September 2020, the newspaper reported former President Trump’s tax returns for 2016 and 2017 and for the previous 15 years.
Littlejohn was also accused of releasing tax information of thousands of America’s wealthiest people to another unnamed news outlet.
That outlet, it is believed, would be ProPublica, a nonprofit journalism organization that published extensive reports in June 2021 that it called “The IRS Secret Files.”
Littlejohn “failed in his responsibility to safeguard the sensitive information entrusted to him, and is now a convicted felon,” said Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri.
Source: with information from AfP
