The next time your rights are violated in a federal crime with the complicity of people working for the federal government, don’t count on the president.
The Justice Department, in a news dump announced in a press release this past Friday afternoon, finally brought a criminal charge related to a leak of private tax returns that included the tax returns of Donald Trump. Trump’s returns, and those of other wealthy Americans, were exposed in reporting by ProPublica and the New York Times. Conservatives can’t expect equal justice from federal law enforcement these days, so it is heartening to get any justice at all.
This was no ordinary government leak. Tax returns are private information, and the income tax was controversial from the beginning because of fear that the private financial information collected by the government could be wielded as a political weapon, either by the government or by selective and vindictive public disclosure (or the threat thereof). Breaches of confidentiality call into question the constitutionality of some of the information the IRS collects. Until recently, the IRS had an admirable record of avoiding breaches, but this case involved perhaps the most egregious public violation in memory. As Brian Faler of Politico observed:
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.
Of course the Biden administration didn’t bother to denounce the leaks, given that they served Democrats’ political interests. That’s consistent with how they responded to the as-yet uncaught Supreme Court leaker.
According to the criminal information — not even an indictment — Charles Littlejohn worked for an outside contractor for the IRS, and “from in or about 2018 until in or about 2020 . . . he stole tax returns and return information associated with Public Official A and thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, including returns and return information dating back more than 15 years.” “He thereafter disclosed the tax information associated with Public Official A to News Organization 1 and the other tax information to News Organization 2. Both news organizations published numerous articles describing the tax information they obtained from” Littlejohn.
It has not been difficult for news organizations to work out that “Public Official A” is Trump, “News Organization 1” is the Times, and “News Organization 2” is ProPublica. The statement by ProPublica is kind of hilarious:
The DOJ’s description of one of those leaks appears to refer to the trove of IRS data that ProPublica used to report its “Secret IRS Files” series. The vast dataset contained details on thousands of wealthy Americans, and ProPublica reported dozens of stories based on an analysis of it. “As we have said from the beginning, we do not know the identity of the source, so we have nothing further to say about the charges filed today,” Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica’s editor in chief, said. The DOJ’s description of the second leak, information regarding “a high-ranking government official,” appears to match The New York Times’ reporting on the taxes of Donald Trump. A spokesperson for the Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sure, they have no idea where the information they published came from. If you don’t know the source, how can you publish it with any confidence that it’s genuine? And if you’re certain that it’s genuine, you know to a 100 percent certainty that it’s stolen information in violation of important privacy laws.
And yet, if the charges are proved true, Littlejohn did not just disclose information that ended up in the hands of the Times and ProPublica, he disclosed that information “to” each organization. Somehow, Littlejohn is charged with only a single count of violating 26 U.S. Code § 7213(a)(1), which makes it unlawful “willfully to disclose to any person, except as authorized in this title, any return or return information.” That single count carries a maximum sentence of five years. Contrast this with, say, Jack Smith’s indictment of Donald Trump for a separate felony for each document he retained unlawfully at Mar-a-Lago. Here, DOJ didn’t even charge Littlejohn with two separate counts even though he appears to have transmitted different return information, relating to different taxpayers, to two different outlets. He should have faced two counts; he plausibly could have faced a count for each taxpayer whose privacy was violated.
How did Joe Biden respond as his own Justice Department was alleging that ProPublica received stolen information, whose disclosure to it comprised a felony that was compounded by publication? By granting a (rare, for him) sit-down interview with ProPublica that was released on Sunday. Not only did this signal that the president stands with ProPublica, he had the monumental gall to go on about the “rule of law,” attack the Supreme Court (which ProPublica has been dutifully targeting in an openly ideological campaign), and complain about Trump’s seeking “retribution” against political foes.
The next time your rights are violated in a federal crime with the complicity of people working for the federal government, don’t worry: Joe Biden will talk to their accomplices so they know he has their backs.