After a bombshell tax records leak, Donald Trump moves fast to bury his secrets, blacklisting Booz Allen Hamilton
The Trump administration is severing ties with the management consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton over a data breach, as revealed by Scott Bessent, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, through a statement on January 26, 2026. Bessent additionally provided an estimate of the losses the firm would incur following their departure, highlighting that the Treasury Department currently has 31 separate contracts with them totaling $4.8 million in annual spending and $21 million in total obligations.
Trump is wasting no time covering up his trails. As mentioned previously, his administration is distancing itself from Booz Allen Hamilton, as per a statement by Scott Bessent. For those who don’t know the context of the incident, between 2018 and 2020, an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton named Charles Edward Littlejohn had stolen and leaked the confidential tax returns and return information of thousands of taxpayers. As per the statistics determined by the IRS, the number of people affected by the data breach was believed to be approximately 406,000 taxpayers. Following the occurrence, Littlejohn had pleaded guilty to his crimes. Coming back to what we were initially discussing, besides letting people know about the Trump administration parting ways with Booz Allen Hamilton, Bessent’s declaration also contained the reason behind this drastic step, which is President Trump’s trust in his cabinet to “root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and canceling these contracts is an essential step to increasing Americans’ trust in government.” He additionally noted:
Booz Allen failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service.”
The news regarding the Trump administration’s estrangement from Booz Allen Hamilton has had a major impact on the firm, causing its stock price to fall by 10 points, which prompted them to share their perspective. On social media, including X (formerly Twitter), Booz Allen Hamilton’s official page highlighted that they “have consistently condemned in the strongest possible terms the actions of Charles Littlejohn, who was involved with the company years ago.” The post also emphasised the firm’s ethical standards, which include a “zero tolerance for violations of the law.” The statement also clarified that Littlejohn’s criminal actions took place on government systems, not the firm’s systems, as they do not store any taxpayer data on their systems and cannot monitor activity on government networks. It also mentioned that the firm played a key role in Littlejohn’s prosecution following investigations, thereby expressing eagerness to discuss the issue with the Treasury.
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