The Treasury Department on Monday canceled millions of dollars of contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, blaming the major consulting firm for its role in the leak of secret tax information about President Trump and other wealthy Americans.
Secretary Scott Bessent said the company had shown it played too loose with safeguarding the information, to the point that Charles Littlejohn, a Booz Allen employee, was able to exfiltrate tax information of Mr. Trump and the other wealthy Americans and to leak it to news reporters.
“President Trump has entrusted his Cabinet to root out waste, fraud and abuse, and canceling these contracts is an essential step to increasing Americans’ trust in government,” he said.
Booz Allen has 31 separate contracts, worth $4.8 million in annual spending, with the department.
Littlejohn, who is serving a federal prison sentence in connection with stealing the information, was a contractor with Booz Allen, working on its contract with the IRS. He was given an IRS office, email account and laptop — which gave him all the access he needed to get the tax information.
He stole Mr. Trump’s information and gave it to The New York Times. He then stole information of thousands of wealthy Americans and gave that to ProPublica.
Booz Allen, in a statement, said it has condemned the actions of Littlejohn and said he left the company “years ago.” It also suggested it was the IRS at fault.
“When Littlejohn’s criminal conduct occurred more than five years ago, it was on government systems, not Booz Allen systems. Booz Allen stores no taxpayer data on its systems and has no ability to monitor activity on government networks,” the firm said.
It said it would continue “discussions” with the Treasury Department on the matter.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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