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IRS leaker sought consultant role with express purpose of releasing Trump’s tax returns, DOJ says

IRS leaker sought consultant role with express purpose of releasing Trump’s tax returns, DOJ says

Justice Department prosecutors say the man charged with leaking former President Trump’s tax returns sought his job as an IRS consultant specifically for the purpose of leaking the information. Charles Littlejohn had done work for Booze Allen from 2008 to 2013, but he returned to the company as an IRS consultant in 2017. Prosecutors say the career move was meant to grant him access to private tax information that would allow him to leak Trump’s tax returns. The DOJ says Littlejohn considered Trump to be a threat to democracy, according to the Wall Street Journal. “[Littlejohn] weaponized his access to unmasked taxpayer data to further his own personal political agenda, believing that he was above the law,” prosecutors alleged. “A free press and public engagement with the media are critical to any healthy democracy, but stealing and leaking private, personal tax information strips individuals of the legal protection of their most sensitive data,” they added. IRS CONSULTANT PLEADS GUILTY FOR LEAKING TAX RETURNS OF TRUMP AND NATION’S ‘WEALTHIEST INDIVIDUALS’ TO MEDIA The DOJ went on to say that Littlejohn had a “sophisticated, detailed plan to secretly download” Trump’s returns and those of other wealthy individuals by 2018, according to WSJ. IRS CONSULTANT CHARGED WITH DISCLOSING TAX RETURNS OF TRUMP AND NATION’S ‘WEALTHIEST INDIVIDUALS’ TO MEDIA The DOJ says Littlejohn later uploaded the returns to a private website he owned, which allowed him to bypass IRS systems meant to detect large transfers of data. Once in possession of the data, he allegedly made several copies of it and sat on the information for roughly six months before contacting the New York Times. The DOJ said one of the flash drives containing the information was hidden “inside the lining of a wooden leather box containing an ornamental camel,” according to the Journal. The Times then published several articles about the content of Trump’s returns, and Littlejohn also shared the returns of thousands of wealthy Americans with the organization ProPublica. That led to a series of articles detailing the tax information of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and many others dating back 15 years. A spokesperson for Booze Allen said they support the investigation into Littlejohn’s actions. “We condemn in the strongest possible terms the actions of this individual, who was active with the company years ago. We have zero tolerance for violations of the law and operate under the highest ethical and professional guidelines. We fully supported the U.S. government in its investigation into this matter,” Booze Allen told Fox News Digital. Republicans on Capitol Hill were dismayed late last year when Littlejohn was only charged with one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax information, despite leaking the information of thousands of Americans. “We write today to express concern abut the Department of Justice’s decision to charge Charles Edward Littlejohn with only one count of unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer information despite his admissions that he made two distinct disclosures to two separate news organizations impacting potentially thousands of taxpayers,” wrote House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., along with other Republicans. Lawyers for Trump have requested that Littlejohn receive the maximum sentence of five years in prison. Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report

Georgia Gov. Kemp predicts fiscal growth while state economist warns of recession

Georgia Gov. Kemp predicts fiscal growth while state economist warns of recession

Georgia’s state economist is warning lawmakers that a recession could drive down state tax collections in coming months, while Gov. Brian Kemp is again portraying his budget as a way to spur further economic growth. Speaking to lawmakers by video from Davos, Switzerland, where he is attending the World Economic Forum, the Republican governor on Tuesday told a joint House-Senate meeting of budget writers that Georgia should use its accumulated surplus to pay down debt while cutting taxes and boosting employee pay. He also touted his proposal to invest in transportation projects. “Our fiscally conservative approach has served us well,” Kemp said. “And as a result, we have the opportunity to make an unprecedented investment in our state while at the same time enacting the largest tax cut in state history.” GEORGIA HOUSE GOP EYES 9-FIGURE PRESCHOOL SPENDING HIKE Kemp wants to allot $1.5 billion in cash to the Georgia Department of Transportation before June 30 to speed planned roadwork and establish a freight infrastructure program. Of that money, $200 million would go to cities and counties, increasing what the state sends local governments to maintain their own roads and bridges. He also wants to pay cash for other construction projects and spend $500 million to pay down debt in one of the state’s employee pension funds. Public school teachers would get a $2,500 raise beginning July 1, in addition to a $1,000 bonus that Kemp sent out in December. State and public university employees would get a 4% raise on top of their $1,000 bonuses. The governor also touted his support for speeding up a state income tax, which is projected to cost $1.1 billion in foregone revenue. “Because we chose the smart, fiscally conservative path, we’re returning money to the people while meeting all of our liabilities,” Kemp said. “And we need to stay on that path, or else we risk going the way of these failed blue states.” Kemp’s administration predicts that tax revenue for the current budget year, which is half over, will fall nearly 7%. State income tax revenues are down 4.5% through December, even before income tax cuts took effect. But overall revenue remained up 1.6% through the first six months of the budget year, in part because the state has resumed collecting taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel. But state economist Robert “Bob” Buschman told lawmakers that he expects the national and state economies to shift into reverse in the coming months. “A mild recession is more likely than not, beginning in the first half of this year,” Buschman warned. He said it’s still possible that the economy will avoid a recession, but said growth is likely to be very weak under that scenario. “It won’t be a recession,” Buschman said. “It will just feel like one.” The economist said there are other factors that could drive down tax revenue, including the income tax cut and people cutting consumption after spending money they saved during the pandemic. He also said people could spend less on goods, which generate sales taxes, and more on untaxed services. “As budgeters, you have to be conservative,” Buschman said, noting that predicting too much revenue could lead to painful cuts.

Senate paves way to advance short-term spending bill ahead of looming shutdown

Senate paves way to advance short-term spending bill ahead of looming shutdown

The Senate voted on Tuesday evening to limit debate and advance a vote on the temporary spending patch, known as a continuing resolution (CR), in order to avert a government shutdown later this week. The vote to advance the bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support 68-13. The Senate can now begin debating the spending bill in hopes of passing it by Thursday before sending it to the House. Before the vote Tuesday evening, Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said passing the CR “will avert a harmful and unnecessary government shutdown.” “Second, passing the CR will give our appropriators time to finish drafting all 12 bills to reflect our bipartisan agreement,” Schumer said. “We want to move forward as quickly as we can to turn this topline number into legislation. But everyone knows we need more time.” STOPGAP SPENDING BILL TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN EXPECTED TO PASS CONGRESS DESPITE RIGHT-WING OPPOSITION The current short-term funding arrangement features dual expiration dates. The initial group of government agencies faces a funding cutoff on Jan. 19, and the second set would expire on Feb. 2. The new CR will follow the same structure as the current one, but it pushes expiration dates for government spending to March 1 and March 8.  The initial set of programs that will run out of funding on Friday includes agencies covered under the Agriculture, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA and Transportation-HUD spending bills. The subsequent set includes the Commerce-Justice-Science, Defense, Financial Services-General Government, Homeland Security, Interior-Environment, Labor-HHS-Education, Legislative Branch and State-Foreign Operations spending bills. The aim of having two separate deadlines is to prevent Congress from passing a comprehensive “omnibus” spending bill, a practice widely opposed by Republicans. Earlier this month, Johnson and Schumer struck an agreement to establish the government’s discretionary spending levels at $1.59 trillion for fiscal year 2024.  Additionally, they would adhere to a supplementary agreement for an extra $69 billion, originally negotiated between former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden, with Johnson negotiating $16 billion in added cuts to offset the total. HOUSE, SENATE RELEASE BIPARTISAN AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT FUNDING AS SHUTDOWN DEADLINES LOOM The Senate’s vote puts the CR on track to pass the Senate by Friday. Then, the House will have to pass it as well.  However, the Republican majority in the House has experienced deep fractures over federal spending, with a growing bloc of conservatives declaring they prefer a government shutdown to an extension of the previous Democrat Congress’s spending priorities. The House is likely headed for a showdown with its hardliner flank. Within hours of the CR legislative text being made public, the hard-line right House Freedom Caucus panned it as a “surrender.” Johnson, meanwhile, argued that the extra time will keep Republicans on track to secure conservative policy victories in the spending fight. Fox News’ Liz Elkind contributed to this report. 

New Hampshire residents skeptical of presidential candidates’ approach to opioid crisis as primary looms

New Hampshire residents skeptical of presidential candidates’ approach to opioid crisis as primary looms

Kristina Amyot’s life has drastically improved since the last New Hampshire primary, but she isn’t confident the current candidates will help others achieve the same success. Amyot, 36, spent more than half her life struggling with addiction, mainly to heroin, before joining Hope on Haven Hill, a comprehensive program for pregnant women and mothers that includes residential treatment, transitional housing and a wide array of support services. Today, she’s financially independent with a job, apartment and family she loves. “I will never put myself through that again,” she said in an interview last week. “I have self-worth now.” NEW HAMPSHIRE’S OPIOID CRISIS KEY ISSUE FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES New Hampshire, a small state with an outsized role in presidential politics, has heard from candidates promising action on the opioid crisis for several presidential elections now. And some of those closest to the problem here say they’re dissatisfied with how the Republicans competing in Tuesday’s primary have focused on the border and law enforcement instead of treatment and recovery. Amyot isn’t sure whether she will vote in the presidential primary on Tuesday, in part because she’s skeptical that anything will change. “I feel like every four years it gets talked about, and then it gets lost. We don’t really do much with it, and that’s something that needs to change because this should be one of the top priorities,” she said. “To think that these people don’t care about us is really sad.” NEW HAMPSHIRE GOV. SUNUNU ISSUES WARNING ON FENTANYL POISONINGS: ‘CARTEL-DRIVEN CRISIS’ Starting in the late 1990s with the overprescribing of opioid painkillers, the nation’s drug crisis evolved to encompass heroin and then fentanyl, which in recent years often has been cut into other street drugs, often without the users’ knowledge. More than 80,000 people died of opioid overdoses in 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2015, New Hampshire’s drug overdose death rate was the second highest in the nation. And while the state has made progress since then, the numbers have gone back up. The final tally for 2022 — 486 deaths — was only four short of the all-time high for New Hampshire, a state of about 1.4 million people. “In New Hampshire, we are losing more than a person a day,” said Kerry Norton, who co-founded Hope on Haven Hill in Rochester in 2016. “It’s so easy for everyone to forget that it’s still killing generations of people, and it’s still making communities and states and families and friends lose their loved ones.” Republicans who will be on the New Hampshire campaign trail this week have primarily focused on stopping the influx of illegal drugs at the southern U.S. border. Former President Donald Trump, who once described New Hampshire as a “drug-infested den, ” has proposed using the military against foreign drug cartels, a view echoed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. DeSantis also has said drug smugglers should be shot “stone cold dead,” while Haley has proposed cutting off trade with China “until they stop murdering Americans with fentanyl.” China is accused by many experts of allowing the export of precursor chemicals used to make synthetic opioids like fentanyl. But that’s only part of the equation, argues Jay Ruais, a Republican who was sworn in this month as mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city. “I think we also have to address it on the demand side as well. What are we doing for prevention for kids in schools? What are we doing for those who need more treatment? What are we doing for people who are outside of treatment? And on the recovery side, housing is a big component as well,” said Ruais. “It requires a systemic response where we’re dealing with everything from A to Z.” During his own campaign, Ruais described how completing a court-ordered rehabilitation program in 2010 after a second drunk driving arrest deepened his sense of empathy for those struggling with addiction. “It’s a deeply personal issue to me. It’s why I ran for mayor to begin with,” he said. “But I certainly think that any candidate coming to speak in New Hampshire should be talking about this issue.” After two big leaps at the beginning of the COVD-19 pandemic, drug overdose deaths nationally rose 2% in 2022 to nearly 110,000. In New Hampshire, overdose deaths declined significantly before the pandemic and held steady in 2020, in part thanks to the creation of a hub-and-spoke model called “The Doorway,” in which hospitals work with local providers to connect patients with services close to home. But the state’s 486 deaths in 2022 marked an 11% increase from the previous year. Norton said above all, she wants a president who recognizes that substance use disorder is a disease and will treat the crisis as a public health emergency. Punitive policies don’t help people who end up in the program due to trauma, abuse and lack of connection, she said. PORTRAITS OF HEARTBREAK: NEW HAMPSHIRE MOM RAISING AWARENESS OF OPIOID DEATHS THROUGH ART “I’m not an expert in any way on how controlling the border is going to help,” she said. “What I do know is helping people have affordable health care, affordable housing, and basic rights and support is what will help here in New Hampshire.” Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who led a bipartisan White House commission on opioid misuse during the Trump administration, echoed that approach when he unveiled his national drug policy plan at Hope on Haven Hill’s wellness center in December, a few weeks before dropping out of the race. “We need an approach that remembers and reflects on the very basic humanity of every single one of those 100,000 victims, as well as the treasures each one of them could have brought to this country,” he said. That message resonated with Amyot, who was in the audience that day and plans to be there when Haley visits the center on Wednesday. Putting a woman

Wisconsin lawmakers drive bills forward for statewide electric vehicle charging stations

Wisconsin lawmakers drive bills forward for statewide electric vehicle charging stations

Wisconsin lawmakers took another step Tuesday toward creating a network of electric vehicle charging stations across the state, passing a pair of bills that would make it easier for businesses to operate the stations and free up nearly $80 million in federal construction aid. The Senate passed both Republican-authored bills 30-2 with no debate. The legislation now goes to the Assembly.  A host of groups have registered in favor of the bills, including 7-Eleven, Inc., the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, Kwik Trip, Inc., and environmental group Clean Wisconsin. No organizations have registered against the bills. WISCONSIN REPUBLICANS ADVANCE 75% ELECTRIC VEHICLE REGISTRATION FEE HIKE The first bill would exempt businesses that set up charging stations from regulation as public utilities and require anyone running a charging station to obtain a permit from the state Department of Revenue. The measure would create a 3-cent per kilowatt-hour excise tax on electricity sold at a charging station. Consumers would not have to pay the state’s 5% sales tax. However, state estimates on how much revenue the tax would generate vary. The state Department of Transportation projects it could amount to as much as $27,600 by fiscal year 2025-26; the Department of Revenue estimates it could produce as much as $930,000. Not imposing the 5% sales tax on charging station electricity would result in a loss of $1.3 million annually, according to the Department of Revenue. WISCONSIN ASSEMBLY PASSES BILLS OUTLAWING LOCAL GAS ENGINE BANS Local government entities and state agencies would not be allowed to operate public charging stations but could run their own stations to charge their vehicles. The second bill would allow the state Department of Transportation to administer $78.7 million in federal grants to help businesses construct charging stations over the next five years.  The grants would cover up to 80% of costs; grant recipients would have to put up the remaining 20%. The federal dollars are intended to jump-start construction of stations along Wisconsin interstates and highways, with federal guidance calling for stations no more than 50 miles apart.

Federal judge says DOJ presented no evidence Black Georgia voters would be hurt by shorter early voting

Federal judge says DOJ presented no evidence Black Georgia voters would be hurt by shorter early voting

A federal judge in Georgia will not strike down an election law tightening registration dates and mail-in voting for runoff elections. At the heart of the case was an election law — the Election Integrity Act — championed by state Republicans that seeks to shorten the time frame for Georgia runoff elections from nine weeks to four weeks and reduce the window for mail-in ballots.  When no candidate wins a majority in Georgia elections, the state transitions to a runoff. This unique system has forced elections to be dragged out for weeks, well after the rest of the nation’s results are confirmed. GEORGIA VOTING SYSTEM UNDER SCRUTINY AS TRIAL OVER CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE DRAWS NEAR Democratic opponents, joined by the U.S. Department of Justice, tried to claim the stricter voting period unfairly discriminates against Black voters. The law also closes voter registration 29 days before elections, preventing individuals from registering to vote between the first election and a hypothetical runoff.  U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee ruled Friday that plaintiffs did not offer any evidence supporting their claim that Black voters are uniquely impacted by the law. GEORGIA DA FANI WILLIS TAKING HEAT FOR ‘RECKLESS,’ ‘STUPID’ ALLEGED RELATIONSHIP WITH PROSECUTOR IN TRUMP CASE “Plaintiffs presented evidence that Black voters are more likely to vote early. Plaintiffs did not present any evidence, however, which would show why Black voters would disproportionately struggle to vote during the new early voting period,” Boulee wrote. State Republicans applauded the court’s ruling in defense of the law, which they believe will protect the integrity of the voting process. “This ruling affirms what we have maintained all along — that Georgia’s Election Integrity Act is designed to ensure fair and secure elections for all citizens,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement.  He added, “We will continue to stand firm in defending the principles of this legislation.”

New Hampshire GOP primary a 2-person race between Trump and Haley, new poll indicates

New Hampshire GOP primary a 2-person race between Trump and Haley, new poll indicates

MANCHESTER, N.H. – With six days to go until New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary, a new poll indicates former President Trump remains the clear frontrunner, with former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley firmly in second place and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a distant third. Trump, who is running a third straight time for the White House, grabs 50% support among those likely to vote in next Tuesday’s New Hampshire GOP presidential primary, according to a survey released Wednesday by Suffolk University, the Boston Globe and NBC10 in Boston. Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, stands at 34% support, with DeSantis at 5%. Six percent said they were undecided and 3% were backing another candidate. The poll was conducted Monday and Tuesday evenings, during and after Trump scored a massive victory in Monday night’s Iowa caucuses, the first contest on the GOP presidential nominating calendar. TRUMP, HALEY, TURN UP THE VOLUME ON EACH OTHER AS GOP PRESIDENTIAL SLUGFEST MOVES TO NEW HAMPSHIRE Trump smashed the competition in Iowa, winning 51% of the vote, with DeSantis a distant second at 21% and Haley in third at 19%. IOWA’S OVER – NOW THE GOP PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY FIGHT TURNS TO NEW HAMPSHIRE However, New Hampshire has a very different electorate than Iowa. Moderate voters in the Granite State are highly influential, and the state’s independents – who can vote in either major party primary – have long played a crucial role in New Hampshire’s storied presidential contest. The new poll shows Trump with a massive 61%-34% lead over Haley among registered Republicans, with Haley topping Trump 44%-38% among independents. While the former president holds a commanding 6%-18% lead over his former U.N. ambassador among self-described conservatives, Haley leads 56%-27% among those who consider themselves moderate or liberal. “Trump is pulling out Republicans and male independents,” Suffolk University Political Research Center director David Paleologos told Fox News. However, he noted that Haley is “beating Trump two-to-one among moderates and female independents. That’s her strength.” The survey, which questioned 500 likely GOP primary voters in New Hampshire, had an overall sampling error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.