The former IRS contractor who leaked the tax returns of then-President Trump and thousands of other wealthy Americans was sentenced Monday to five years in prison.
Charles Littlejohn, who cast himself as digital-era Robin Hood, must also pay a $5,000 fine.
“You have caused and have risked causing immense harm to thousands of Americans,” U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes told Littlejohn as she handed down the sentence.
Littlejohn, who pleaded guilty, had begged for leniency days earlier.
He said at the time, he thought it would benefit society to leak tax information of the privileged. Littlejohn’s attorney told the court that his client now sees what he did was wrong.
The New York Times reported leaked details from Mr. Trump’s tax returns in September 2020, just weeks before the presidential election.
Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican whose returns also were leaked, panned the guilty plea that resulted in the sentence, saying it was a “sweetheart” deal that ignored the large number of victims.
“The Biden Justice Department has become politicized to attack the regime’s enemies and protect its friends,” he said.