This summary was submitted to the subreddit:
From the CNN article -
The man who stole and leaked former President Donald Trump and thousands of others’ 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.
“What you did in attacking the sitting president of the United States was an attack on our constitutional democracy,” Reyes said. “We’re talking about someone who … pulled off the biggest heist in IRS history.”
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.
Prosecutors said Littlejohn went through great lengths to steal the tax records undetected, exploiting system loopholes, downloading data to an Apple iPod and uploading the information on a private website he later deleted.
Reyes was also critical of the Justice Department’s decision to only bring one count against Littlejohn.
“The fact that he did what he did and he’s facing one felony count, I have no words for,” the judge said. Prosecutors argued that the one count covers the multitude of Littlejohn’s thefts and leaks.
“A free press and public engagement with the media are critical to any healthy democracy, but stealing and leaking private, personal tax information strips individuals of the legal protection of their most sensitive data,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing recommending Littlejohn be sentenced to the maximum of five years in prison.
“I acted out of a sincere misguided belief,” Littlejohn said in court Monday, adding that he was serving the country and that people had a right to the tax information.
“We as a country make the best decisions when we are all properly informed,” Littlejohn said.
Littlejohn added that he was “aware of the potential consequences” of his actions and knew he would one day be here, in federal court, facing those consequences.
“My actions undermine the fragile faith,” in government institutions in the US, Littlejohn said.
Weird take.
“Land of the free” doesn’t mean you are free to commit crimes. Even if the crime is against a complete shit bag.
I don’t agree with the sentencing but I really don’t see how your comment makes any sense for anyone that isn’t young and ignorant.
If someone stole your personal tax information and plastered it across the internet I doubt you’d have this take. Shit is still illegal and it doesn’t matter who the victim is even if they are a complete shit bag.
Five YEARS in prison for a white collar crime where he personally gained nothing from it. Many of the Jan 6 attackers are already scot-free and they tried to overthrow the fucking government.
Like I said I don’t agree with the sentencing but doing illegal shit has consequences. Whether he personally gained something from it doesn’t make any difference in the fact that he committed a crime.
Would you be ok with someone stealing your personal info and plastering it across the internet? How do we know your personal info or my personal info wasn’t leaked in the process?
Or are we saying that committing crimes is OK just as long as you don’t like the victim?
Both me and OP never argued that he should have no consequences at all. But five years in prison is banana republic level shit.
Don’t you guys (US) have an election coming up soon? This can definitely affect the outcome of that election. I kind of feel that 5 years is fairly light for unlawful disclosure of private information that affects the outcome of a major election.
I can definitely see the angle that he did it for a good reason, but I hope he understood the consequences when he decided to do it.
So then help explain “land of the free” comment.
Because to me that implies OP doesn’t understand what freedom actually means.
Shit take either way.
If this was the banana republic that person would have been executed. Yall live in a fucking bubble ffs.
I can see the connection somehow even if it’s a bit out there. I’m ok with people breaking the law when the law is unjust or made to protect those in power. Don’t defend the situation just because it’s the law because that’s the wrong take here.
There must be such a thing as freedom of information and if I’m not mistaken being a whistleblower would usually go against certain laws but it can be somewhat protected. What he’s done is on that gray area of whistleblowing and he shouldn’t be punished for it, even if it’s against the law. This has nothing to do with not liking the victim and you are just gaslighting the complaint of op.
Also, many countries have such thing as freedom of information about taxes paid by everyone, it’s not such a horrible thing to be open to anyone. It helps specially to avoid cases of corruption and so on.
The wrong take is thinking that breaking the law is OK just because you don’t like the victim. Smh
If you were the victim you’d be singing a different tune.
Sincerely I think you are missing the point (on purpose or not I don’t know and this will be my last answer to you on this topic). A law can be wrong, can be unjust, and breaking it wouldn’t be ethically wrong.
This dude from the post did what he did knowing he put himself at risk, and he is standing his own for it, acknowledging what he has done, not avoiding whatever may be the punishment. That doesn’t mean that the law is being used to protect anything other than the interest of rich people avoiding taxes. That’s the law he broke? Good then! That law shouldn’t exist! It’s not about who’s the victim, me or other. Yeah sure if I was avoiding paying taxes that’d probably mean I wouldn’t want to be caught either, that doesn’t make it right anyway…
No this is just you thinking that it’s OK because you don’t like the victim.
Are you OK with people leaking your tax returns across the internet? I doubt it.
If so send me your tax returns. You’ll never do it.
Well, the thing is that where I live, anyone can make a request to see the taxes of anyone. A prospective employer when looking for an employee can go confirm what he makes in their current place. I could go check on my boss. Every year there’s (was? I’m not up to speed on this topic) a report in the media of who earns most and the taxes they are paying and so on.
So yeah, that info is public, doesn’t mean I want to share it with you tho, different context and such XD but if you’d know who I am you could go check my data legally and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
Funny how that works huh?
All talk but when confronted it’s suddenly an issue.
yes. you’re starting to get it.
you’ve been duped by goose and gander logic. this is how sociopaths continue to get away with creating suffering.
comitting crimes is ok if it’s in the service of humanity.
What exactly was the crime? I mean, under which statute is “unauthorized exposure of tax returns” made illegal?
And why does it deserve jail?
Edit: This seems related
Employees are prohibited from browsing or inspecting a celebrity or politician’s return or return information without authorization constitutes a UNAX violation with potential for fines, imprisonment, and dismissal.
But it says nothing about publishing.
To your first question: 26 U.S. Code § 6103
🙄
Well I mean, this is breaking the law to expose broken aspects of a financial system, government and also possibly identify other criminals too. You can’t just represent this as “doing illegal shit”, it is like calling killing for self defense “illegal shit”. It is illegal yes and a very serious crime too but not “illegal shit”. In fact if someone who kills for self defense gets a longer prison sentence than someone who kills for fun because the latter person has some connections etc then it is probably the system who is doing some “illegal shit”. Strict adherence to the legal system and definitions only makes sense if it is not biased towards protecting the powerful but unfortunately it is.
chaotic good disagrees