In the United States, a man has been formally charged with the unauthorized disclosure of tax returns belonging to a "prominent government official," widely believed to be Donald Trump.

According to prosecutors, Charles Littlejohn, who worked as a contractor for the IRS, the national tax authority in the US, unlawfully obtained this confidential information and relayed it to a news organization.

Additionally, he stands accused of illicitly accessing the tax returns of numerous wealthy individuals in the United States. The Department of Justice asserts that this data was subsequently shared with another media outlet.

Legal documents filed in court indicate that both news organizations published multiple articles based on the leaked information. It's important to note that as of now, neither of these news organizations has been charged with any wrongdoing.

While the government official's identity remains undisclosed in the court documents, a reliable source has confirmed to CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that the individual in question is indeed former President Donald Trump.

Furthermore, the same source revealed that The New York Times received information concerning Mr. Trump's tax returns, while the second news outlet, ProPublica, received information pertaining to other individuals.

The New York Times has chosen not to provide a comment on these claims when approached by CBS News, whereas ProPublica released a statement to the outlet, stating, "We have no comment on today's announcement from the DoJ.

As we've said previously, ProPublica doesn't know the identity of the source who provided this trove of information on the taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans."

There has been no public comment from Mr Trump.

Court documents claim that between 2017 and 2021, Mr Littlejohn worked for an unnamed consultancy which in turn worked on contracts from the US Department of the Treasury's IRS, dealing with tax administration.

The papers go on to allege that between 2018 and 2020, while Mr Littlejohn was working on an IRS contract "he stole tax returns and return information", some of which dated back more than 15 years.

The charge against Mr. Littlejohn is the unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison. There has been no public comment from the Washington DC resident.

A 2020 article in The New York Times, which is thought to have been based on the leaked information, claimed that Mr Trump paid just $750 (£580) in federal income tax both in 2016, the year he ran for the US presidency, and in his first year in the White House.

The newspaper also said that he paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years and that the records reveal "chronic losses and years of tax avoidance".