The ex-IRS contractor accused of leaking former President Donald Trump’s tax returns disclosed so many people’s tax information that prosecutors want to notify the thousands of victims through a public website, according to a court filing Wednesday.
Charles Littlejohn, of Washington, DC, is accused of stealing Internal Revenue Service data from thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people. Littlejohn allegedly leaked some of that information – including Trump’s – to national media organizations, and reporters published information on more than 150 victims, according to court documents.
Littlejohn has not yet entered a formal plea. His lawyer previously declined to comment on the allegations.
Federal law requires that prosecutors notify any crime victims they can identify, and IRS rules similarly require notification of all taxpayers whose return information was improperly disclosed.
Prosecutors said they have already notified the smaller group of victims whose information was published through the mail and phone calls, but prosecutors said that notifying thousands of victims that way “would be impractical.”
The proposed webpage would appear on the Justice Department’s website, prosecutors wrote, and would provide a case summary, information and updates on the case as well as hearing schedules and documents in the case.
“The website will also contain an e-mail address through which individual potential crime victims could contact the Department of Justice with questions regarding the case,” prosecutors wrote.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct where Charles Littlejohn is from.
Source: www.cnn.com