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.

  • DharkStare@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    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.

    • Hegar@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      “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’.

    • AnonTwo@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      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.

      • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        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.