Charles Littlejohn: Man who stole and leaked Trump tax records sentenced to 5 years in prison | CNN Politics
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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.

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.

  • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
    7·
    10 months ago

    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.

    • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
      22·
      10 months ago

      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.

        • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
          22·
          10 months ago

          Thanks appreciate it. Considering he got the harsher end of the spectrum, I’m going to look into this further.

          • Zoboomafoo@slrpnk.net
            2·
            10 months ago

            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

          • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
            2·
            10 months ago

            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.

            • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
              22·
              10 months ago

              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.