Trump Tax Leaker Cites Fifth Amendment in House Inquiry into Biden DOJ Plea Deal
Man pleads the Fifth amid House Judiciary Committee questioning on leaked Trump and others’ tax records.
Charles Littlejohn, the former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) contractor currently serving a five-year prison sentence for leaking confidential tax returns—including those of former President Donald Trump and numerous high-profile individuals—has declined to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. Citing his ongoing appeal, Littlejohn exercised his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination, according to a letter from his public defender submitted to the committee.
The Republican-led committee has been investigating the circumstances surrounding Littlejohn’s plea deal with the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2023. As part of the agreement, Littlejohn admitted to orchestrating a sophisticated operation to access and disseminate the sensitive tax information of Trump as well as other wealthy Americans, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett, to media outlets. In exchange, prosecutors charged him with a single count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns, for which he received the statutory maximum sentence of 60 months in federal prison.
The terms of the plea bargain have drawn criticism from both the bench and lawmakers. At sentencing, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes expressed her concern over the DOJ’s decision to pursue only one felony count despite thousands of taxpayers being implicated, stating she was “perplexed” and “troubled” by what appeared to be a notably lenient prosecution strategy. "The fact that he is facing one felony count, I have no words for," she told the courtroom.
The controversy has continued to reverberate through the halls of Congress. Republican senators and representatives have repeatedly called out the Biden DOJ for the perceived inadequacy of the charges and potential precedent set for future breaches of taxpayer confidentiality. Senator Rick Scott labeled the outcome “the plea deal of the century,” while House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith criticized the DOJ for failing to deter future leaks from IRS insiders.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan intensified scrutiny by requesting all internal DOJ communications and records regarding Littlejohn’s prosecution. Jordan referenced new information from the IRS suggesting that the breach was even more expansive than previously reported, impacting over 405,000 taxpayers, the majority of whom were business entities. "While it is now clear that Mr. Littlejohn’s conduct violated the privacy of hundreds of thousands of American taxpayers, it remains unclear why the Biden-Harris Justice Department chose to allow him to plead guilty to only a single felony count," Jordan wrote in correspondence to the DOJ.
At this time, the Department of Justice has declined to comment on the congressional inquiry. The House investigation continues, with lawmakers seeking further answers about the extent of the leak and the prosecutorial decisions made in one of the most consequential breaches of IRS data in recent history.
