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.
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.
Damn you are obtuse… I don’t need to give it to you, it is public information. Go ask for it from the government where I live. Ah, you don’t know who I am? Maybe that’s why I don’t want to give you that information. The fact that I protect my anonymity here has nothing to do with what I consider should be public data as citizens in a government. But either you are too dumb to get the difference or you are just trolling, either way the conversation is over.
Exactly. Hacking into protected systems and leaking personal info is exactly why this is considered a crime.
There is a difference between what is shared publicly by the government vs hacking into private info and leaking the info.
You’ve already admitted that you don’t want to doxxed. Seems you’re the obtuse one.
yes. you’re starting to get it.