Charles Littlejohn, who admitted to carrying out an elaborate scheme to disclose former President Donald Trump’s tax returns illegally, is set to be sentenced Monday in the district court of Washington, D.C.

Littlejohn faces a maximum penalty of five years in jail after he pleaded guilty in October to a single charge, unauthorized disclosure of tax returns.

The former Internal Revenue Service contractor told prosecutors that he carried out a plot that involved carefully working around IRS protocols to access Trump’s returns and the returns of thousands of other wealthy people, according to court filings. Littlejohn said he then leaked the returns to the New York Times and ProPublica.

Littlejohn’s attorney asked Judge Ana Reyes for leniency in a sentencing memorandum last week, saying he did not act out of self-interest but rather “out of a deep, moral belief that the American people had a right to know the information.”

“He did what he thought was right at the time, but now fully acknowledges that he was wrong,” Littlejohn’s attorney said.

The Department of Justice has asked that he receive the maximum five-year penalty. Littlejohn agreed his crime warranted prison time but argued that he should only be given roughly one-fifth of the penalty that the DOJ wants.

The case first surfaced in September 2020, when the New York Times published a bombshell report saying its reporters had obtained two decades’ worth of Trump’s tax information and that those documents showed the then-president, who was in the final stretch of his reelection campaign, had experienced “chronic losses and years of tax avoidance.” Months later, ProPublica published dozens of articles containing the private tax records of some of the richest U.S. taxpayers, including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffett.

Trump responded during a town hall in October 2020 to the New York Times report and accused the newspaper of unlawful activity and inaccurate reporting.

“What they did is illegal, number one. Also, the numbers are all wrong, with the numbers that they released.” Trump said, adding that “if they have my tax returns, as you know, they have to go to jail.”

Littlejohn told prosecutors he worked with the New York Times reporters for months. He “engaged in multiple discussions, including in-person meetings” with them, and after initially handing over the trove of tax records, he then stole more records and provided the reporters with more information, he said.

The New York Times acknowledged in an editor’s note the legal implications surrounding disclosing private tax information but said the newspaper broke no laws when it obtained the returns.

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the First Amendment allows the press to publish newsworthy information that was legally obtained by reporters,” former Editor-in-Chief Dean Baquet wrote.

The DOJ’s prosecution of Littlejohn has drawn criticism from some, including congressional Republicans, who found that a single charge against Littlejohn was inadequate.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) called the DOJ’s efforts “weak” and said the department has “[failed] to deter future IRS employees from leaking sensitive taxpayer information.”

The DOJ was also slammed in headlines that accused it of “Going Easy on a Tax-Return Heist,” as well as other critical headlines: “IRS Leaker Charles Edward Littlejohn gets off easy,” “Leniency on Tap for Anti-Trump Leaker of Taxes of the Wealthy,” and “IRS Leaker Who Stole Trump’s Tax Returns Gets ‘Slap On The Wrist’ From Biden DOJ.”

Meanwhile, in a separate matter, the DOJ has faced criticism from press freedom advocates for being too aggressive. That case involves the right-wing group Project Veritas, which is known for its controversial methods of gathering news, such as recording its subjects while undercover.

The FBI raided the homes of three of the group’s former employees in November 2021, seizing their phones and laptops as part of an investigation into how Project Veritas ended up in possession of the diary of Ashley Biden, President Joe Biden’s daughter. The devices, attorney Paul Calli warned at the time, contained a wealth of information protected by attorney-client privilege and the First Amendment.

The American Civil Liberties Union, a group that openly abhors Project Veritas’s journalistic activity, raised alarm over the raids, as did the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) demanded the DOJ inform Congress of its “factual and legal predicate” for carrying out the raids, and he and a chorus of others have raised concern over whether the FBI violated the three former employees’ civil liberties.

The DOJ has secured guilty pleas in the case from two other individuals, the ones who initially took Ashley Biden’s property and then sold it to Project Veritas. The pair is now awaiting sentencing, each for one count of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property.

Court precedent has firmly established that journalists can publish information that was obtained illegally without fear of punishment, so long as the journalists themselves did not participate in any unlawful activity. Calli argued that Project Veritas “had no involvement with how those two acquired the diary” and that the group was under the impression the diary had been obtained legally.

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The DOJ has not at this stage charged anyone from Project Veritas over the matter, but litigation over the material seized in the raids indicates the department is still pursuing its investigation of the three former employees.

In Littlejohn’s case, the DOJ has not shown any sign of targeting the New York Times reporters involved in publishing the tax information he stole, even though an email that emerged through the court proceedings suggested one of the reporters provided encouragement to Littlejohn as he debated whether to commit the crime of handing over Trump’s returns.