Sen. Rick Scott on Sunday expressed frustration that President Joe Biden’s Justice Department is once again showing its bias against conservatives.
And this time, it’s personal.
Scott told Fox News that he wants a left-wing activist punished to the fullest extent of the law for illegally releasing his tax returns, as well as those of former President Donald Trump and numerous other wealthy Americans.
The Florida Republican was asked about the sentencing of Charles Littlejohn, a former government contractor with the Internal Revenue Service, while appearing on “Fox News Sunday.”
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As the Tampa Free Press reported last October, federal prosecutors charged the Washington resident with one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information.
Littlejohn will be sentenced on Monday. He faces up to five years in prison.
Roll Call reported on Friday that prosecutors have recommended the maximum punishment, saying the “unparalleled” release of such sensitive material undermines trust in the nation’s tax system.
Littlejohn unlawfully disclosed the returns of billionaires such as Trump, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Peter Thiel, among others.
Roll Call reported that prosecutors have claimed Littlejohn’s breach affected more than 1,000 Americans whose tax information was illegally made public.
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Scott claimed the number is actually more than 7,500. And instead of treating each case as an individual crime, the senator noted that he’s allowed to be punished for just one case.
“He intentionally took the job to release Trump’s tax returns,” Scott told host Shannon Bream on Sunday.
Scott expressed frustration that prosecutors did not go harder on Littlejohn.
“This is just an example of the Justice Department decides, ‘Oh, if you do something against Republicans, who cares. But if you do it against Democrats, that’s bad. But if you do it against Republicans, oh, we’ll give you a slap on the wrist,’” Scott said.
As the Free Press reported last fall, Littlejohn released the confidential tax information to The New York Times in 2020 and to the left-wing activist group ProPublica in 2021.
In September 2020, the Times reported on Trump’s 2016 and 2017 tax records. The Times sought to out Trump after he became the first president in decades to not publicly release at least some of his tax returns.
The second leak coincided with Biden’s push for a $1.8 trillion spending bill that sought to raise taxes on the wealthy.
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ProPublica’s report on the information fed it by Littlejohn suggested that those Americans whose records were stolen had not paid their “fair share” of federal taxes for years.
According to Roll Call, Littlejohn’s attorneys have asked the judge for leniency.
They claim Littlejohn believed he was acting in the public interest after becoming concerned about income inequality and tax dodging, Roll Call noted.
“He did not disclose the information for personal gain; nor did he intend to harm the taxpayers,” the defendant’s lawyers wrote in court records in response to a sentencing memorandum by prosecutors.
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