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.
The judge compared Littlejohn’s actions to those of the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, noting that, “your actions were also a threat to our democracy.”
Because stealing and releasing tax documents is the same thing as attempting to violently overthrow the government.
“your actions were also a threat to our democracy.”
This is one of those exciting sentences where you have to substitute ‘democracy’ for ‘rich people’s yacht money’.
So the judge is in with trump. Hope none of his cases go that guys way.
Like yeah, he broke the law and needed to be punished. But it wasn’t government secrets, which i’m pretty sure is already legally coded separately from this guys crimes, and also neither of which are treason, which would be the capital attack.
So the guy blatantly spoke against his own legal experience for a political swing.
She was appointed by Joe Biden and is an immigrant to this country from Uruguay. I don’t think she’s a Trump sycophant, I think she’s just a lawful pedant and a fan of hyperbole.
That’s a longer sentence than many of the January 6th traitors.
This. Jan 6 traitors are getting slap on their wrists and pat on their backs
All Cops are Bastards, All Judges are Bastards, All Prosecutors are Bastards.
The entire fucking “justice” system is tilted towards forgiving and enabling right-wing violence while labeling left-wing protest as “terrorism” that justifies lethal force.
Snot Flickerman
All Cops are Bastards, All Judges are Bastards, All Prosecutors are Bastards.
The entire fucking “justice” system is tilted towards forgiving and enabling right-wing violence while labeling left-wing protest as “terrorism” that justifies lethal force.
Sweet Jesus the amount of extremist propaganda that’s gets peddled these days is mind boggling. To think people like this think they’re better than the people brainwashed by Fox and friends…
Then again… We’re on Lemmy lmfao.
You think every cop, judge, and prosector ain’t corrupt?
Reads like satire, probably as serious as the Herman Cain award lmfao.
The cognitive dissonance of your average Lemming is staggering.
Adding to this. The judge said “It engenders the same fear that January 6 does.” So if this crime is just as bad Jan 6, shouldn’t he be getting the same punishment as other Jan 6 traitors. Like you said, a shorter sentence. Not saying I agree with the judge but pick a side.
Anyone has ever deserved a pardon it’s this guy
Unfortunately a presidential pardon would be as blatant a political act as they come. Or at least that’s how it would be perceived.
He’ll be OK. There’ll be employers lining up to give him a job afterwards.
Which means GOP would do it in a heartbeat but we for some reason never could dream of doing so
“some reason”?
Would you mind elaborating?
In a sane world, he would have been given a Medal of Honor
Hey may catch a pardon depending on how November goes. Could get ugly if Trump wins, too. The Donald is not a forgiving type…
Naw Biden’s not going to do it, and even if asked why not, he’ll give some nonsense about letting the nation heal.
And also pardoning him would be corruption
I’m curious, in what way?
The man broke the law in order to publish documents damaging to Trump. Biden pardoning him would be seen as a reward for attacking his political opponents
Lol check out this bs: "The judge compared Littlejohn’s actions to those of the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, noting that, “your actions were also a threat to our democracy.”
“It engenders the same fear that January 6 does,” Reyes added."
Invasion of privacy is a very big deal to our legal system when it is the rich peoples’ big number papers.
Invasion of privacy is a very big deal for rich people
They made an example of them. That judge is well enough off to be thoroughly upset that somebody might release their crooked tax documents.
Honestly I think they should slip something into the law, for this type of leak if the person was lying and you release the document proving them lying that you get a slap on the wrist.
Can you cite anything that the judge has gone outside of the recommended punishment for this type of crime? Or is this just an idea that all of these powerful government officials are conspiring to scare people into not doing something like this? Any evidence that this judge is rich and corrupt? Or is it just that it fits the narrative that you want to be true so you’ll assume it’s true?
The recommended penalty for unauthorized disclosure is something more like a $5000 fine. The maximum allowable penalty for the offense is 5 years in prison.
“Wanting to do the right thing” is apparently an aggrivating circumstance.
Thanks for actually addressing the point. Where did you get this information from? Not that I don’t trust you, I’m just curious to read more.
Weird. I SWORE I linked this. Maybe it was a different reply.
As for the exact terminology, I got the crime he pleaded guilty of from the propaganda press junket from the DOJ on the matter.
Thanks appreciate it. Considering he got the harsher end of the spectrum, I’m going to look into this further.
He got the maximum sentence because he was unrepentant of the crime, and because anything less than that would seem biased. I didn’t see any mention of fines, maybe he got off easy there?
If you check the original article there’s a bit at the bottom where the prosecution wanted to charge him for much more than just one Unauthorized Disclosure
E:switch Prosecution for Judge
I thought when I read the article that the judge was upset that the prosecution didn’t go for more.
When you do, you’ll find out he did more things (more folks’ tax returns, though he didn’t publish those AFAIR). I’m sure he pled to this crime because of those other things. But that doesn’t really justify maximum sentence for what he was found guilty of.
But that doesn’t really justify maximum sentence for what he was found guilty of.
Considering I was planning on looking into this, can you explain your reasoning? I could easily be convinced one way or another.
I can cite a shit ton of the uber wealthy that get off scott free for a hell of a lot worse. But that won’t support your point any better.
So, no, you don’t have any evidence that this judge has done anything wrong, nor do you know that the ruling was especially harsh. Figured.
Does professional trolling pay well these days?
No argument, empty ad hominem. It’s amazing that people still don’t realize how much this reveals how little faith they have in their own argument.
Wow, you just keep going, it’s truly impressive at this point.
Don’t be too impressed as it’s easy to keep going when you argue the facts and the other person can’t do anything but sling insults. This is especially true when they aren’t even good at slinging insults.
That’s RIGHT! Releasing Tax Returns gets you MORE Jail Time then trying to violently overthrow the United States Government and HANG the Vice President! That will teach Hostile Countries to MESS with US!
You’d have thought he was Russian opposition and he had revealed something about Putin!
And Biden won’t pardon him.
He really shouldn’t. What the guy did was still legally wrong, and he probably knew it and weighed he would rather take jail time and commit it. A less scrupulous person could do worse things, which is why those laws are in place.
If he could somehow reduce the sentence that would be great, and if that is on the table he should, but some punishment should still occur.
He’s a vigilante hero for what he did, but vigilantes are still criminals. The main issue here is that the punishment is clearly wrong, and the message is wrong, as the judge seems to think this is paramount to treason, which it isn’t.
A crime of conscience is exactly what pardons are supposed to be for - doing what is right regardless of the legality or consequences
Trump and his base already conflate his many court cases catching up to him as the DOJ sent to stop a political rival. If Biden just pardoned the person who “stole” Trumps taxes, we’d hear about it nonstop til November.
Don’t do something because it might piss of the Republicans is not gonna cut it as an excuse.
And as we have all seen, they will straight up invent a reason to complain nonstop until November if they don’t have a real one.
The guy chose to commit the crime. The republicans are looking for anything that sticks in their idiot bases brain and “Biden chooses to pardon anti trump criminal” will be on the fox or oan scroll until it’s burned into their eyes. Pardoning is Biden’s option, but if he does, that helps trump with his base in a tight race. Obviously he wouldn’t pardon.
How many votes for Biden do you lose if the Fox News viewers decide not to vote for him? Are there many people watching that channel who are on the fence?
When Haley drops there will absolutely be unallocated repubs angry with trump.
So, what, instead Biden should capitulate to avoid offending them?
We’re going to hear about this shit nonstop til November anyway, it doesn’t matter if Biden pardons him or not. Might as well earn it.
