A former Internal Revenue Service contractor was charged Friday with leaking tax information to news media about a government official and thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people.

Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., is accused of stealing the tax return information and giving it to two different news outlets between 2018 and 2020, the Justice Department said in a statement. Littlejohn declined to comment. The Associated Press also contacted his attorney.

Both

news

organizations, not mentioned in the tax documents, have published numerous articles describing the tax information and tax documents. Some information dates from more than 15 years ago.

Littlejohn is charged with one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and tax return information. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.

The IRS declined to comment specifically on the case, but Commissioner Danny Werfel said any disclosure of taxpayer information is unacceptable “and the agency has since tightened security.