The man who stole and leaked former President Donald Trump and thousands of other’s tax records has been sentenced to five years in prison.
In October, Charles Littlejohn, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized disclosures of income tax returns. According to his plea agreement, he stole Trump’s tax returns along with the tax data of “thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people,” while working for a consulting firm with contracts with the Internal Revenue Service.
Littlejohn leaked the information to two news outlets and deleted the documents from his IRS-assigned laptop before returning it and covered the rest of his digital tracks by deleting places where he initially stored the information.
Judge Ana Reyes highlighted the gravity of the crime, saying multiple times that it amounted to an attack against the US and its legal foundation.
He was providing a public service since trump refused to release them like every other presidential candidate has done for decades. This should be considered the same as whistle blowing.
Why? No legal requirement to do so, it was literally something that started when a candidate did it to show how honest and transparent he was and caught on. It’s not illegal activity to refuse, so whistleblower laws don’t apply.
Also, even if they did for Trump’s returns, he released a lot more than just Trump’s returns so he’d still be in the hot seat.
Even Trump deserves the privacy protections guaranteed by law
No he doesn’t.
Guillotine, got it.
Very insightful
He deserves the gallows.
Only if convicted in a court of law
Jury of his peers are shouting for it.
That’s called a mob
Guess he’s gonna get an offer he can’t refuse
The jury selection process would exclude those people who already made a decision
There is a law which requires the IRS to turn over tax records for high government officials when asked by Congress, and Trump ordered his head of the IRS to ignore the orders.
Now admittedly this is not the same as being public, but I don’t think that there are rules preventing Congress from publishing this information once received, so it is in practice public.
Plus Trump promised to publish his tax returns, so basically he should be thanking this patriot for saving him the trouble.
The guy is a government employee, but he’s not Congress. In fact, we should be able to trust that the government won’t publish our records to the public because some guy who works there feels like it.
You allow it in this case, who knows whose records get leaked next time?
You’re correct, the leaker is not Congress. Congress was denied the ability to see the President’s returns because President Trump and his subordinate broke the law and refused to supply his returns to Congress when asked.
This law does not apply to everyone, just high government officials. I’m the worst case anyone in a high position in the US government would be forced to have financial transparency, and I’m okay with that.
I’m saying for all the people defending the leaker, that wasn’t the correct way to do it. Sue in court and see what comes out of it.
You’re not allowed to say that here.
Breaking federal law is only bad if you’re on the right.
Its insane how hypocritical many LW posters are while claiming they want to save our democracy, freedom, and the rule of law. Laws only apply to people you disagree with.
He got a longer sentence than many of the January 6th rioters. The reality is he committed a crime against billionaires and the Jan 6th dumbasses only committed crimes against public officials despite the latter criminals being more violent.
But I guess crimes only count when they affect the ultra wealthy plutocrats.
That’s not the topic of any of my comments at all.
Many posters are ignoring basic facts of law and how courts work, just because they feel wronged.
Do I think the difference in length of sentence is fair for this leak vs jan 6 rioters? No it’s not fair, but that’s an opinion unrelated to the speediness of this trial entirely.
So what you’re saying is that the commenters here are humans with biases and feelings about perceived injustice?! This is a travesty. People should really strive to be as robotic as possible! If a serial killer gets off on a technicality, welp guys that’s just how shit works sometimes and you aren’t allowed to express feelings about that.
Sure, but those same commenters also ridicule the other side for being uneducated and not understanding the law or operating based on feelings rather than facts.
Pot, meet kettle.
Right yeah the problem we have is then expressing feelings about Hillary Clinton. Not that they are objectively wrong about most of what they think about her and other dems. /s
If they had their facts straight they’d be well within their rights to want her and others locked up
I pointed out something objectively wrong and you had a problem with it.
Why are you talking about Hilary?
And yet they did. Shocking. How does that fit in your narrative?
Watch the down votes
Wah wah
Removed by mod
Of all the laws to pick and choose on, I’ll happily pardon this one.
Trump literally said he’d do it and then didn’t.
Every other president in recent history has done it.
It’s not like someone forced him to eat his hat. He was forced to follow a convention that he’d already told people he intended to follow.
Trump (like the bulk of the right) believe and act as though laws and norms are used solely to protect yourself and punish those they don’t like. Much like the paradox of tolerance, allowing these people to hide behind rules and norms they won’t respect themselves isn’t healthy for democracy, freedom, or the rule of law - the best way to protect those things is to keep the likes of Trump out of power. You’ve already seen what he’ll do with democracy given half a chance.
Keep him out how? By any means necessary, even illegal and unamerican ways?
Is this the “paradox of democracy” now?
The only way to save law and order is to not follow law and order? Do you realize how Fascist that sounds?
No - I mean actually have him face consequences.
Biden has treated him with kid gloves for multiple reasons - mostly because he doesn’t want to be seen as uncivil or disturbing the status quo. There’s massive scope to do more without getting into illegal territory.
How fascist does it sound, exactly - please enlighten us.
Of course, if we took Trump’s recent insistence that nothing the President does can be seen as illegal, Biden could just send SEAL Team 6 to kill him - but this is the attitude we’re defending the democracy against.
What does “unamerican” mean to you?
Depends which laws, doesn’t it? There are different ones you see (give him a break, guys he’s learning)