NW Valley Times

Arizona Senate Majority Leader Janae Shamp (R-Surprise) said news organizations publishing the illegally-obtained tax records of 405,000 Americans, including President Donald Trump, is an example of the “weaponization of government in concert with the media.”

One of the news organizations that published the records, ProPublica, has been a partner with The Arizona Republic.

“This is exactly why President Trump was elected by an over whelming majority of Americans," Shamp told NW Valley Times. "The weaponization of government, in concert with mainstream media, against its own people has proven to be the norm under the previous administration and MUST come to an end immediately!”

More than 405,000 U.S. taxpayers, including President Donald Trump, had their tax records illegally leaked by an IRS contractor to news organizations ProPublica and The New York Times.

That’s according to a Feb. 25 letter sent by IRS Acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell to U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

The Arizona Republic announced in 2019 that it was part of ProPublica's 50-state "Local Reporting Network."

O’Donnell’s letter to Jordan said that 405,427 taxpayers—including individuals and businesses—had their tax information unlawfully accessed and leaked by Charles Littlejohn, an IRS contractor, between 2018 and 2020. 

Littlejohn pleaded guilty to unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and was sentenced to five years in prison in January 2024.

Among the leaked tax records were those of President Trump, which were leaked to the The New York Times. The Times then published a report on September 28, 2020, detailing two decades of Trump’s tax returns.

Littlejohn later leaked a broader set of IRS data, including Trump’s records, to ProPublica, which used it for its June 2021 “Secret IRS Files” series.

O’Donnell said the IRS “has mailed notifications to 405,427 taxpayers whose returns and/or return information was disclosed by Mr. Littlejohn.”

Founded in 2007, ProPublica “is the creation of Herbert M. and Marion O. Sandler,” reported The New York Times. The Sandlers are a N.C. couple who Time magazine ranked among “25 people to blame from the (2008) financial crisis.” They originally committed $10 million a year to ProPublica, reported the Times.

Eighty-four percent of ProPublica’s readers identify as liberal, according to a 2018 ProPublica survey of its own readers, and 33 percent of the outlet’s readers say the group’s reporting is liberal. 

The Arizona Republic announced in June 2019 that the paper was "one of six news organizations selected by the nonprofit ProPublica to participate in its grant-supported Local Reporting Network, a project that supports investigative journalism in local newsrooms across the country."

"We're thrilled to be joining forces with ProPublica on this great initiative to support in-depth local journalism across the country," said Greg Burton, executive editor of The Arizona Republic.

The Republic reported that, as part of the partnership, "ProPublica pays salary and benefits for the lead reporters in the newsrooms selected for the Local Reporting Network."

Michael Squires, the southwest editor for ProPublica, was formerly an Investigative editor for The Arizona Republic, from 2017 to 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was the government and politics editor for the Republic from 2013 to 2018, and the Page One editor for the Republic from 2012 to 2013.

Hannah Drefus, currently an investigative reporter at the Republic, was previously an "Abrams Reporting Fellow" at ProPublica from 2021 to 2023, according to her LinkedIn profile. 

As of publication time, neither ProPublica nor The New York Times has faced public legal action over publishing the illegally-leaked tax records.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee posted on X that O’Donnell’s letter to the committee about the illegal leak to ProPublica “confirms the Committee’s suspicion and recent reports that show the scope of the leak was much broader than what the Biden Administration’s IRS initially led the public to believe.”

“This is a MASSIVE scandal,” said the committee.