Have no fear, America. Your tax return information is safe and secure. IRS computers are better protected than Fort Knox. All IRS employees have impeccable morals and are honest as the day is long. It’s the IRS contractors you’ve got to worry about.
One IRS contractor, Charles Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., has been charged with stealing the IRS files of former President Donald Trump and thousands of other wealthy, prominent taxpayers. Littlejohn worked for the IRS as a contract employee from 2018 to 2020.
While employed as an IRS contractor, Littlejohn allegedly stole “tax returns and return information associated with Public Official A” and disclosed that information to a media outlet. A source told numerous news outlets that “Public Official A” is Donald Trump.
Politico reports that “the charges were filed as a [sic] ‘criminal information’ rather than an indictment.” This usually indicates that a plea deal has been struck. Littlejohn is on the hook for a five-year prison sentence for revealing the tax information — a small price to pay for such a massive breach of the public trust.
Curiously — or, perhaps, not curiously — there hasn’t been a word about the entire affair from the Biden administration. I guess it doesn’t give a hoot about privacy.
The leak astonished many IRS veterans, not just because of its sheer scale, but because tax filings are subject to elaborate safeguards and unauthorized disclosures are rare.
Adding to the mystery was the silence of Biden administration officials, who had said virtually nothing publicly about the leak or how it had happened. Republicans accused Democrats of disclosing the information in hopes of fueling their push in Congress to raise taxes on the rich.
At the same time, one of the people whose records were leaked — Ken Griffin, a prominent hedge fund manager — sued the IRS for failing to protect his tax filings. In court, the administration argued there was no evidence that leak came from a government employee.
IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement, “Any disclosure of taxpayer information is unacceptable.”
“The IRS has put in place new protocols and protections that tightened security, and our aggressive work in this critical area continues in order to protect the tax and financial information of taxpayers.”
Horse. Barn door. Egg on face.
Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the Finance Committee, said, “While many questions remain, at the very least, IRS guardrails failed to prevent this brazen breach of taxpayer rights.”
“It goes without saying that resolving these and other ongoing security issues at the IRS, as well as identifying and making whole the individuals impacted by this breach, must be the IRS’s highest priority.”
Some Republicans are asking the IRS, “What took so long to find this guy”?
The leaks provided fresh fodder for critics of the I.R.S. who for years have accused the agency of acting with political motivations and being reckless with taxpayer data.
The slow pace of the investigation put I.R.S. and Biden administration officials on the defensive at congressional hearings over the last two years, as they were able to offer no information about how such sensitive data could escape.
“I really am anxious to see some results here as well,” Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said at a hearing in May 2022. “I regret that I’m not able to do so.”
Yeah. I’ll bet.
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