By Paul Sperry for RealClearInvestigations
The Inner Income Service lately awarded a profitable contract to assist modernize its pc databases to the identical Washington firm, Booz Allen Hamilton, that employed the person who pleaded responsible final week to stealing and leaking hundreds of personal tax returns from rich People. together with the previous president. Trump, in response to information reviewed by RealClearInvestigations.
Cyber thief Charles “Chaz” Littlejohn was engaged on an IRS contract for Booz Allen in 2018 when he stole greater than twenty years of Trump’s private tax info from IRS computer systems. He later leaked them to the New York Occasions, which revealed unfavorable tales about Trump’s long-awaited returns simply weeks earlier than the 2020 election, which Trump narrowly misplaced.
After the election, Littlejohn leaked a trove of delicate IRS information on Elon Musk, Michael Bloomberg and different billionaires — together with main conservative donors — to ProPublica. The left-wing information website used them to write down a sequence, “The Secret IRS Recordsdata,” about how the rich use loopholes and methods to keep away from taxes. Congressional Democrats cited the sequence of their push for greater taxes on the rich.
Littlejohn, a Democratic donor, struck a cope with federal prosecutors wherein he managed to launch tax info with out authorization. Though he faces a most sentence of 5 years, his plea deal requires an estimated eight to 14 months when he’s scheduled to be sentenced on January 29.
Booz Allen Hamilton, the world’s most worthwhile authorities contractor, has had ties to high-profile Democrats over time, together with former worker James Clapper, who served as President Obama’s intelligence czar. Clapper was concerned in an intelligence neighborhood operation to suppress details about Biden’s overseas affect on his son’s laptop computer simply weeks earlier than the 2020 election.
No less than two Obama administration alumni serve on Booz Allen’s board. President Clinton’s IRS commissioner additionally holds a seat. Federal data present that Booz Allen contributed a complete of $238,776 to Joe Biden within the 2020 election cycle, in comparison with $85,657 to Trump. The corporate additionally gave almost 4 occasions more cash to the Democratic Nationwide Committee than to the Republican Nationwide Committee.
Associated: Trump Tax Leaker Labored for Biden Beltway Donor Who Simply Gained Massive New IRS Contract
Federal investigators closed in on Littlejohn, 38, this summer season when the Biden administration determined to rehire his former employer, Booz Allen, by means of a contract with a capped worth of $2.6 billion to assist the IRS’s IT operations revised. The huge new IRS contract might clarify why the Biden administration will not title Littlejohn’s employer in lawsuits and press releases in regards to the case.
The Justice Division would say solely that Littlejohn “served as a contractor for Firm A, a consulting agency serving private and non-private shoppers.” The Treasury Division, which oversees the IRS and can also be investigating Littlejohn, additionally didn’t determine Booz Allen as the corporate. That features Littlejohn’s attorneys, who declined to remark.
The Washington media has jumped on board with the blackout, describing Littlejohn as an “IRS contractor.” Despite the fact that they’ve reported in some element in regards to the mechanisms of Littlejohn’s theft — he uploaded information to a non-public server relatively than downloading it to a flash drive that would set off an IRS alert — information retailers just like the New York Occasions, Washington Put up and Politico by no means defined the important thing query of how he bought entry to the tax returns within the first place: as a result of he labored for Booz Allen.
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The id of his former employer isn’t tough to seek out on the Web. A February 26, 2018 Pew Charitable Belief bulletin describes Littlejohn as “an affiliate of the monetary and financial growth apply of Booz Allen Hamilton.”
The huge IRS breach raises new questions on Booz Allen’s means to guard delicate authorities info. In 2013, Booz Allen put Edward Snowden to work on the Nationwide Safety Company. In Might, Snowden left the nation with hundreds of top-secret paperwork that he quickly leaked to journalists, exposing the company’s world counter-terrorism surveillance program. Snowden fled to Russia and was granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin in 2022.
Associated: Ex-IRS contractor who leaked Trump’s tax returns pleads responsible
In 2016, Booz Allen pc analyst Harold Martin III was arrested for stealing different information from the NSA. The McLean, Virginia-based firm employs greater than 20,000 consultants with authorities safety clearances who deal with a few of the nation’s most confidential information.
Regardless of this historical past of breaches, the IRS has relied on Booz Allen to assist modernize its pc system. In late June, the IRS awarded the corporate a part of a multibillion-dollar contract to replace its databases, which entails consolidating roughly 400 totally different methods into a brand new, cloud-based structure. The IRS didn’t reply to requests for remark about Booz Allen.
In a press assertion following Littlejohn’s arrest, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel mentioned the company has “tightened safety” within the wake of the leaks. Based on a press launch from the Division of Justice, the Treasury Division’s inspector normal is “nonetheless investigating” the matter. Prosecutors haven’t offered a motive for Littlejohn’s crime. They don’t say whether or not they know why he leaked Trump’s tax info to the media.
Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.
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