A former Internal Revenue Service contractor, who leaked tax information about Donald Trump and other wealthy individuals to news organizations, got his job to intentionally to spread the confidential records, according to Justice Department prosecutors.

Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, pleaded guilty in October to unauthorized disclosure of tax return and return information. U.S. District Judge Ana Reye scheduled sentencing for Jan. 29. Prosecutors recommended Tuesday he receive the maximum sentence of five years in prison.

“After applying to work as an IRS consultant with the intention of accessing and disclosing tax returns, Defendant weaponized his access to unmasked taxpayer data to further his own personal, political agenda, believing that he was above the law,” wrote prosecutors Corey Amundson, chief of the Justice Department’s public integrity section, Jennifer Clarke and Jonathan Jacobson.

  • Snot Flickerman
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    8 months ago

    EDIT II: I am indeed apparently quoting the prosecutors. Whoopsie doodles. Prosecutors are generally ass people, too, of course. Leaving the original for my shame.


    Defendant weaponized his access to unmasked taxpayer data to further his own personal, political agenda, believing that he was above the law

    Literally no one who does something like this thinks they’re above the law when they’re just doing to force our elected officials to comply with the law.

    Fucking judges man, they’re just as shitty as fucking cops. Look at this fucking holier than thou bullshit attitude from this asswipe. The number of judges who equate the law with morality and ethics is too damn high. The number of judges who trust the cops word over anyone else’s simply because they’re a cop is too damn high.

    I got read the riot act by a judge over weed once. I may as well have been dealing with a priest I got so much holier than thou how dangerous you are bullshit over fucking WEED.

    AJAB.

    EDIT: I mean, hell, you want a real disgusting example of this? Go look at the court history around the prosecution of Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg got lucky, because he was absolutely treated similarly by the judge, as though he “thought he was above the law” and not that he was trying to correct an injustice. I guess judges only like it when they can “correct” an “injustice.”

    • n2burns@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Literally no one who does something like this thinks they’re above the law when they’re just doing to force our elected officials to comply with the law.

      This didn’t force any elected officials to comply with the law. As much as I dislike Trump and hope he goes to jail for his actual crimes, not releasing his taxes is not against the law.