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The report comes as access to sensitive taxpayer information has sparked calls for investigations — and calls for reform on taxes for the wealthy. Littlejohn had applied to work as a contractor to get Trump’s tax returns and carefully figured out how to search and extract tax data to avoid triggering suspicions internally, prosecutors said in court documents. Werfel said that since the agency has received funding through Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act, it has been able to markedly improve the security of sensitive information, including audit trail deficiencies. “Our data security and environment is dramatically better today than it was in 2017 to 2020 when this unauthorized access occurred," Werfel said. "And it’s dramatically better today because we now have the resources to make the right investments to strengthen our data security.

Persons: Daniel Werfel —, —, ”, “, TIGTA, Charles Edward Littlejohn of, Donald Trump, Littlejohn, Jason Smith, Werfel, Lindsay Whitehurst Organizations: WASHINGTON, IRS, Treasury, Associated Press, Charles Edward Littlejohn of Washington, Charles Edward Littlejohn of Washington , D.C, New York Times, Associated Locations: Charles Edward Littlejohn of Washington ,

☆ Man who stole and leaked Trump tax records sentenced to 5 years in prison
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Holmes Lybrand | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The man who stole and leaked former President Donald Trump and thousands of other’s tax records has been sentenced to five years in prison. In October, Charles Littlejohn, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized disclosures of income tax returns. According to his plea agreement, he stole Trump’s tax returns along with the tax data of “thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people,” while working for a consulting firm with contracts with the Internal Revenue Service. Reyes was also critical of the Justice Department’s decision to only bring one count against Littlejohn. “I acted out of a sincere misguided belief,” Littlejohn said in court Monday, adding that he was serving the country and that people had a right to the tax information.

Persons: Donald Trump, Charles Littlejohn, Littlejohn, Judge Ana Reyes, ” Reyes, “, …, ”, Prosecutors, Reyes, Department’s, ” Littlejohn Organizations: CNN, Internal Revenue Service, US, Capitol, Apple, Prosecutors Locations: United States

☆ Former Contractor Who Leaked Trump’s Tax Returns Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Eileen Sullivan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A former Internal Revenue Service contractor accused of leaking the tax documents of Donald J. Trump and other wealthy Americans was sentenced on Monday to five years in prison. The former contractor, Charles Littlejohn, known as Chaz, worked for the tax agency from 2017 to 2021, when he stole the tax records of thousands of the country’s wealthiest people, including Mr. Trump, prosecutors said. Mr. Littlejohn then provided the information to The New York Times and ProPublica. “Today’s sentence sends a strong message that those who violate laws intended to protect sensitive tax information will face significant punishment,” Nicole M. Argentieri, the acting assistant attorney general who oversees the Justice Department’s criminal division, said in a statement. Prosecutors said the harm from Mr. Littlejohn’s disclosures were “so extensive and ongoing that it is impossible to quantify.”

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Charles Littlejohn, Chaz, Littlejohn, Prosecutors, Mr, ” Nicole M Organizations: Internal Revenue, New York Times, ProPublica, Justice

☆ The man who leaked Trump's taxes eluded investigators for years but was finally found after leaking info on Musk and Bezos, WSJ reports
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-28 | by ( Hannah Getahun | Katherine Tangalakis Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Charles Littlejohn confessed to leaking Donald Trump's tax returns. The investigators had focused on Littlejohn for a separate leak involving billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. On two separate occasions, Littlejohn provided tax documents belonging to Trump, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk to two news organizations. Trump's tax returns showed the former president paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017. Musk's tax returns showed he paid $455 million in taxes on $1.52 billion in income between 2014 and 2018.

Persons: Charles Littlejohn, Donald, Littlejohn, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, —, Donald Trump's, Trump, Amazon's, ProPublica, Trump's, Bezos's, Barbara Jones Organizations: Federal, Wall, Service, Street Journal, IRS, New York Times, SpaceX, The Times, DOJ, Business, Republican, Prosecutors, Times, Trump Locations: New York

☆ European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2023: Caring stink bugs and tangled octopuses
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Callum Sutherland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Rolex’s Perpetual Planet initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action. That’s exactly what was captured by the overall winner of the 2023 European Wildlife Photographer of the Year award. The photo taken by biologist Javier Aznar González De Rueda shows with incredible detail a female stink bug shielding her eggs and newly hatched larvae. Two octopuses tangle their tentacles around one another, unusual behavior, according to photographer Francisco Javier Murcia Requena. “They stimulate interest in species, habitats and the interconnectedness of nature as well as increasing awareness for nature conservation.”

Persons: CNN —, Javier Aznar González De Rueda, Aznar, ”, tripterus, Francisco Javier Murcia Requena, Mark Littlejohn, Petr Bambousek, Petr Bambousek Sabine Riewenherm Organizations: CNN, Central America, German Society for Nature, German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation Locations: Ecuador’s, Spanish, South, Central, Brazil

☆ Going Easy on a Tax-Return Heist
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: mandel ngan/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesThe Justice Department has finally found the man who stole thousands of private federal tax records and leaked them to the media. But the potential deterrent effect is going to be muted by the plea deal negotiated with Internal Revenue Service contractor Charles Littlejohn. In a hearing last week in Washington federal court, Mr. Littlejohn admitted to stealing tax returns for President Trump and thousands of wealthy Americans, before leaking them to two separate media outlets. He gave Mr. Trump’s information to the New York Times , even as the President was fighting demands for his tax returns by Democrats in Congress. The leak of wealthy taxpayer information to ProPublica coincided with a progressive campaign to impose a new tax on assets.

Persons: mandel ngan, Charles Littlejohn, Littlejohn, Trump, Littlejohn’s Organizations: Agence France, The, Department, Internal Revenue Service, New York Times, Congress Locations: Washington

The Justice Department charged Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., with stealing tax return information and giving it to two news outlets between 2018 and 2020. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said she was deeply troubled by his actions that affected Trump and thousands of other people. Littlejohn pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information. The 2020 New York Times report found Trump paid $750 in federal income tax the year he entered the White House and no income tax at all some years thanks to colossal losses. The stories sparked calls for reform on taxes for the wealthy — and calls for investigations into the leaking of tax information, which has specific legal protections.

Persons: —, Donald Trump, Charles Edward Littlejohn, Ana Reyes, ”, “, Littlejohn, Trump, Alina Habba, Jan, General Merrick Garland, Littlejohn “, Lisa Manning, ProPublica Organizations: WASHINGTON, Internal Revenue Service, The Justice Department, Washington , D.C, U.S, District, Trump, The New York Times, New York Times, White, IRS Locations: Washington ,

☆ Former IRS contractor accused of stealing Trump’s tax returns pleads guilty
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-12 | by ( Holmes Lybrand | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —The former IRS contractor accused of leaking former President Donald Trump’s tax returns and stealing tax information on thousands of the wealthiest people in the US pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday. Prosecutors say Charles Littlejohn of Washington, DC, sent Trump’s tax returns and other data to two media outlets that “published numerous articles describing the tax information they obtained from the Defendant.”Littlejohn pleaded guilty to the one count of disclosing tax information, which he was charged with in late September. The contractor’s crime affected so many individuals that prosecutors plan to create a public website to notify the victims of any developments in the case. Habba said Trump was opposed to the plea deal and called for the maximum sentence of five years in prison for Littlejohn. “Make no mistake, this was not acceptable.”A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for January 29.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, Charles Littlejohn of, ” Littlejohn, ”, Alina Habba, Trump’s, “, Habba, Trump, Littlejohn, Judge Ana Reyes, ” Reyes Organizations: CNN, IRS, Prosecutors, Charles Littlejohn of Washington, Defendant, Trump

CNN —Federal prosecutors announced charges Friday against a contractor with the Internal Revenue Service who allegedly stole the tax returns of a high-ranking government official. During his contract, Littlejohn allegedly stole “tax returns and return information associated with Public Official A” and disclosed that information to a news organization. Though the official is not named in court documents, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN the tax returns in question were Trump’s. “Both news organizations published numerous articles describing the tax information they obtained from the Defendant,” court documents said. Littlejohn is charged with one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information and faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Persons: Donald Trump, Charles Edward Littlejohn, Littlejohn, ” Littlejohn, ProPublica, doesn’t, ”, Trump Organizations: CNN, Federal, Internal Revenue Service, Defendant, The New York Times, ” CNN, New York Times

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — One person was injured when shots were fired during an argument between two groups of people at the Oklahoma State Fair on Saturday, sending a crowd of people running for safety, police said. One person was arrested on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon after the evening shooting, Oklahoma City police Lt. Jeff Cooper said Sunday. The injured person was taken to the hospital and remained in critical condition Sunday, police said. Valerie Littlejohn said that after the initial shooting, someone fired some rounds into the air as people started running. Political Cartoons View All 1176 ImagesGuns are prohibited on the fairgrounds, and there are security and detectors at entrances, police said.

Persons: Jeff Cooper, Cooper, Valerie Littlejohn Organizations: OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma State Fair, Oklahoma, Sunday, Police Locations: Oklahoma

☆ Amazon used 11.6% less plastic for shipping last year and is phasing out those blue and white plastic mailers
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Amazon used nearly 86,000 tons of single-use plastic packaging last year, an 11.6% drop. Amazon is also ditching its blue and white padded plastic mailers in favor of easier-to-recycle paper packaging. Oceana for several years has tried to put numbers on how much plastic Amazon is using. Oceana's analysis for 2021 found Amazon used about 709 million pounds of plastic packaging — some 355,000 tons. Amazon said it used less plastic in 2022 by expanding packaging made with recyclable paper across the US, Canada, and Europe.

Persons: —, Matt Littlejohn, Littlejohn, Oceana Organizations: Amazon, Service, Oceana Locations: Oceana, Canada, Europe, Australia

☆ Amazon used enough plastic air packets in its boxes to circle the planet 800 times in 2021, an outside group found. The company said it used far less.`
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon said its plastic packaging footprint came to 97,222 metric tons in 2021. Oceana estimated that Amazon used nearly 322,000 metric tons of plastic in 2021, more than triple what the company calculated. By Oceana's count, Amazon used 52% more plastic last year compared with 2019, the first year the group conducted its analysis. In 2021, Target, Walmart, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo each used more plastic packaging than the previous year, contributing to an overall 4.3% increase across brands and retailers. California, the largest economy in the US, passed a law in June to cut plastic packaging in the state by 25% over a decade.

☆ Biden's surprise move to reclassify cannabis could supercharge legal weed — but it also carries big risks for companies and investors
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-07 | by ( Jeremy Berke | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

He announced pardons for federal cannabis possession and ordered a review of how cannabis is scheduled. While Biden's announcement stopped far short of decriminalization, he outlined three key steps:He's pardoning people federally convicted of simple cannabis possession. Biden's announcement signals that his administration — quiet on cannabis until now — will finally push for federal cannabis reform. Stifel analyst Andrew Partheniou called Biden's announcement "the most important development in US cannabis history," in a Friday morning note. If the government decides to regulate cannabis like a pharmaceutical, that could undermine the recreational cannabis industry as it currently stands.

☆ The American right’s future involves waging a 'religious battle' against the left, leaders say at a conservative conference
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms | Allan Smith | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +13 min

MIAMI — In a luxury Miami resort earlier this month, leading conservative politicians, influencers and academics gathered to formulate a grand path forward for the American right. Meanwhile, the broader American left was repeatedly denounced as the “enemy” and a “regime” with “evil” ideas. The conference was backed by substantial donations from conservative advocacy groups and think tanks that included the Common Sense Society, The Heritage Foundation and the Conservative Partnership Institute. One panel featured a presentation titled “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Christian Nationalism,” though some attendees saw a more clear distinction between the two nationalist ideologies. “Sometimes people get swept up in the ideas of Christian nationalism,” Jordan Esrig, a senior at Vanderbilt University who attended the conference, said.

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