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Another apparent\u2063 \u201csweetheart deal\u201d negotiated by President Biden\u2019s Justice Department in \u200da politically charged case is \u2063drawing\u2062 scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Former IRS contractor Charles Edward Littlejohn, who stole and helped publicize the confidential tax records<\/a> of Donald Trump and an estimated 7,500 other wealthy\u200c Americans, could \u2063face little or no jail time when he\u2019s \u200bsentenced later this month, because the\u2064 DOJ allowed him to\u2064 plead guilty\u200c to\u200d a single felony count.<\/p>\n

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In a new\u2064 court \u2062filing, prosecutors acknowledge the plea deal \u201cdoes not account for the fact that \u200bhe \u200dleaked thousands of \u2064individuals\u2019 tax\u200b returns. His [sentencing] range would be the same today if he had leaked only a \u2064single return.\u201d<\/p>\n

But instead of\u2064 seeking \u200bprison time for each of his offenses \u2014 or even for the two separate mass thefts he committed, one in \u200d2019 and another in 2020 \u2014 the DOJ\u2064 is asking a federal judge to sentence Littlejohn to just 60 months, the maximum for a single offense under the statute.\u2064 Some political leaders angry over the plea deal say he should get 60 years, not months, for his crime \u2014 \u2063the biggest heist of IRS taxpayer \u2064data in history.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for Littlejohn, 38, argue he\u00a0actually deserves an even lower sentence, closer to the presentencing report\u2019s range of\u200c four to 10 months, in part because he leaked the reams of stolen private income-tax data to \u201c reputable news organizations<\/a> \u2014 The New York Times and ProPublica \u2014 that\u2062 he knew would handle the information\u2063 responsibly.\u201d They say a 60-month term is \u201cequivalent to a 15-level upward departure\u201d from the range prosecutors originally agreed to\u200b in the plea deal, and such a wide departure would be unprecedented.<\/p>\n

The D.C. judge deciding\u2063 Littlejohn\u2019s fate \u201cdoes \u2064not have unfettered \u200cdiscretion to depart from the applicable sentencing guidelines,\u201d Littlejohn\u2019s attorney Lisa Manning advised \u2064the court in papers\u2064 filed\u200c last\u2064 week.<\/p>\n

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U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee who has a\u2062 record of meting out\u2062 lenient \u200bsentences, will decide his punishment on Jan. 29.<\/p>\n

The Times \u2064and ProPublica published dozens of stories \u200bbased on the personal\u2063 tax files the former\u2063 Booz Allen Hamilton contractor<\/a> electronically smuggled out of the IRS.\u200c Those articles largely advanced Democratic calls for further investigations into \u200cTrump and the need to raise taxes on the wealthy.<\/p>\n

Against the\u200c backdrop of prosecutions of\u200c Donald Trump in an election year and the collapse of Hunter Biden\u2019s earlier no-jail plea deal,\u2064 which a Delaware\u2064 judge rejected \u200bbecause \u2063it was \u201cnot \u200bstraightforward\u201d and contained \u201catypical provisions,\u201d Littlejohn\u2019s plea agreement is raising new questions \u2062about the\u200b politicization \u200dof \u200djustice.<\/p>\n

Trump lawyer Alina Habba said Littlejohn\u2019s admission of guilt \u200clooks \u201cmore\u2063 like a Hunter Biden plea deal.\u201d House\u2062 Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith agreed, complaining he\u2019s getting off \u201cwith \u2064just a \u2062slap on the wrist.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At a minimum, the Missouri Republican argues, Littlejohn, a Democrat donor \u2063who sought to damage Trump soon after his 2016 election, should have been charged with \u200dtwo \u201cseparate and distinct\u201d unauthorized disclosures \u2063\u2014 one of Trump\u2019s returns to the Times in 2019 \u200dand the separate tranche of thousands of returns he delivered to\u2063 ProPublica in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile\u2064 some argue that he should have been charged \u200dwith one count per\u200c taxpayer, it is clear to us\u200c that at a \u2063minimum he\u2064 should have been charged\u2063 with two counts of unauthorized\u200b disclosure and potentially with at least\u200d one \u200ccount of obstruction of justice,\u201d Smith wrote the DOJ\u200c in a recent letter, noting that\u200d Littlejohn took a number\u2063 of measures to foil investigators.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say his victims total \u201cover 1,000.\u201d\u2063 But the number of taxpayers whose privacy he violated \u2063could run in the several \u200bthousand.<\/p>\n

According to recent court papers, Littlejohn rejoined Booz Allen in 2017\u200d with \u200cthe express purpose of getting assigned to \u2064the IRS and\u2063 stealing \u2064Trump\u2019s tax returns, which he downloaded in 2018. Then in June 2020, he began conducting searches of the IRS database to pull historic tax data on the wealthiest taxpayers in the country. Specifically, he constructed a query designed\u2063 to call up the \u200btop 500 taxpayers by income by\u2062 year for the previous 15 years. After running the \u200dquery, he stole the entire data \u200dset, \u200dput\u2062 it on a flash drive, and gave it to reporters at\u200c ProPublica, a left-leaning nonprofit funded \u2062by\u200c George Soros and other wealthy liberal donors. ProPublica, in turn, published\u200b nearly 50\u200c articles using the purloined tax returns to \u200cshow how the rich use loopholes in the tax code to avoid paying taxes. Congressional Democrats cited the series in \u200btheir \u200bpush for higher taxes on \u2063the wealthy.<\/p>\n