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.
It sounds like Charles Edward Littlejohn is a fucking badass and overall rad dude worth celebrating. Additionally, if he gets the maximum sentence of 5 years, that will be drastically longer than many of the January 6th rioters. I can’t change the outcome for him, but I do wish him luck.
He needs to be pardoned or at least have his sentence commuted. But I highly doubt that Biden would do it.
A precedent where your followers break the law in your name can be a dangerous war of escalation between opponents.
Trump already set that precedent when he pardoned Roger Stone.
That’s exactly my point. Now people want more. Escalate it. Same bullshit as Israel/palestine. Well the first guy did “x” first, then the other guy says but you did the other thing first, etc., etc…
The height of stupidity, there is no end of the blame game of grievances, manufactured or real.
No, I’m not saying “both sides”, one side is objectively better (even if marginally), I’m saying a war of escalating tit-for-tat justifications is useless.
E: in comparison, according the following comments who apparently haven’t a clue and completely misrepresent my intent and argument: Biden should release any democrats from prison or reinstate democrats in positions after they left due to any impropriety. That’s the war of escalation I’m talking about, not simply following the law.
It doesn’t matter if it’s your point or not, it’s still a wrong-headed way of thinking about the situation because the world doesn’t revolve around fearing what Republicans will do if a Democrat pardons a righteous man. He should be pardoned regardless.
You are creating the us vs. them situation you’re accusing you opponent of engaging in specifically by making that argument. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
We do not simply stop doing what is right because some assholes might pardon evil people in retaliation. We do what is right regardless, because that’s the whole point of righteousness.
Republicans will pardon their own anyway so it doesn’t even matter. We need to do the same.
My point doesn’t matter? So you discard my point to make yours? What the heck kind of argument is that? My point wasn’t about right vs wrong, it was about taking knee-jerk retaliatory action devoid of nuance or reason.
You accused me of making it about fear of republicans, that’s doing what you accused me of doing by “creating” the argument. I said nothing about appeasement or letting them have their way to avoid trouble.
In no way shape or form do I think actual and real harm should remain unaddressed. Bullshit must be met head on, but with measured and real responses. But just knee-jerk reaction? No.
Your point is irrelevant, because it is a fundamental misrepresentation of the situation you are imposing because you have an ideological agenda. One which we will not be bullied or manipulated into submitting to.
You’re not even really reading or thinking about what I’m saying, you’re just repeating what you said before like a robot. And I don’t argue with robots.
So only the one side should abuse their power? They are not going to stop abusing it just because their opponents took the high ground.
So everyone should abuse their power? Are you willfully blind to where that goes?
Are you willfully blind to what happens if you let your opponents oppress and abuse you without fighting back in kind? I am not going to the gulag. Have fun there.
“your followers”
More like “those who hate the other guy”
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That seems like a rational take and I agree with you. Curious why the down votes? Because you’re alluding to Biden having shortcomings at all? Or because it’s perceived as a both sides are the same argument?
It’s hard to accept we’re living in such a tribal world. There’s no more nuance or middle ground in the majority it seems.
He’s getting down voted because most people in this thread are foaming at the mouth.
I hate trump as much as the next guy. What this guy did, tho, is currently against the law. Should the law be changed? Should he have gone through a whistle blower process? Questions to be asked.
But as of today, you can’t purposely get a job at the IRS to leak information that the IRS wasn’t ready/allowed to release. Full stop.
The folks arguing here that he should be pardoned or who are enraged that he is even being charged are presenting childish arguments. There’s a theme on Lemmy that I’ve noticed. Tribalism is strong as fuck.
You heard it here folks, avoiding the appearance of impropriety is the most partisan thing you can do
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It doesn’t sound to me like he thought he was above the law. He seemed to know the consequences. He just didn’t think that Trump should be above the law. Or, at the very least, above presidential decorum.
Yet the orange buffoon still walks the streets and continues raising hatred.
“raising hatred” … How did he hurt you and would like to talk about it?
Sir, you must be confused, this isn’t reddit. Take your trolling bullshit and go back there, thanks.
American hero
He knew he wasn’t above the law, he just believed the consequences were worth it. I hope he’s right.
Yup. Dude took one for the team.
He held the records up to the light knowing he would be burned by it. Truly the definition of a hero.
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This is probably one of the hardest things to do in the era we live in - go against our social engineering to sacrifice a relatively comfortable life in defiance of this moment.
Collectively, we’re frogs in the pot, especially as we move towards the end of this year and the worldwide elections as an accelerator to societal collapse. It’s so hard to know what to do that might make a difference today, at least this person tried, I hope society persists beyond this garbage moment and for long enough to allow history to look back on people like this as heros who at least tried.
Collectively, we’re frogs in the pot, especially as we move towards the end of this year and the worldwide elections as an accelerator to societal collapse.
Comparing us to frogs does a disservice to frogs. They tried to slowly boil frogs and the frogs jumped out.
We’re more like people sitting in a hot tub while people pee in it. When will we notice that the hot tub is mostly pee and get the fuck out?
Littlejohn… friend of Robinhood?
If he gets jail time, I’ll contribute to his commissary account.
Silly as it sounds, this is exactly how to support him. That and writing letters. It means so much to incarcerated folks to have the few things from commissary that make life just a little less miserable, and what to spend it on is a bit of choice and independence in a system designed to take every bit of those things away as a means of grinding inmates down.
Letters are just as important - a lifeline to the outside. Sometimes literally. Guards know who is in regular contact with people outside, and who doesn’t have anyone to report abuse to. Being able to communicate things like unmet medical needs so someone can set up a call campaign can be life or death.
I’ve never heard of this before. Is it common or just a us thing?
I believe the part about having something to feel connected to life is common. The part where you can write someone about abuse and issues seems more like the US thing
OK How do I send this guy a letter? what’s his prison address?
He may not be incarcerated yet. He was only sentenced last week, and once he surrenders it may take a few days for his info to show up. Since this was federal, he’ll be going to a federal prison. When he does, you’ll find him here. That will give you his register number, and a link to the prison page where information on how to address mail can be found for the facility he’s in.
He hasn’t been sentenced yet
Why wasn’t he protected as a whistleblower? Or why isn’t Biden pardoning him?
A. Probably because he took the specifically to do this.
B. They don’t usually pardon someone before sentencing.
There’s often a limits to whistleblower protections, usually you’re only protected if you report it internally, and publishing private information is often not protected at all, and whenever there’s protections available for publishing it then it’s usually only protected if it’s limited to what’s necessary to inform the public about a sufficiently severe issue (like newsworthy major fraud).
It would be a pretty bad look for Biden to pardon him IMO. I think it would be a mistake for him to do so.
What did he whistle blow on? A whistle blower is blowing the whistle on their own company they work for for malfeasance. Leaking documents that are not tied to wrong doing by the IRS is not blowing the whistle.
Good. Fuck Trump.
Lol you sound like a loser.
Your username is rare pepe collector
And you sound like someone who puts their political stooges on a pedestal.
Fuck Trump and fuck you too 👍
I suspect he never believed he was above the law, but that the law was broken.
Prosecutors for the Department of Justice’s “public integrity” section are complete fucking twats. They’ve been 1000% blind to anything trump has done, oh but this guy? Yeah “five years in jail”!
Fuckers. I hope they fear the truth that their lives are being wasted to serve their pinheaded idiot masters.
And we’re not doing the “but it’s against the law” thing when it comes to dealing with trump. The convicted fraudster rapist who stage a coup to stay in power? Motherfucker we’re about to go Thomas Jefferson on that demented greasy fuck if he keeps threatening the Constitution and, well, everybody else. Because the pinheads at the Department of Justice’s “public integrity” unit are busy stuffing their heads up their butts. Time’s up, Merrick. You got shit done.
Hey while we got ya Merrick, you got that unredacted Mueller Report we paid 15 million for? No? Still deciding on that are ya? Fuckhead republiQan stooge.
Fuck Scientology and fuck scientologists though. Especially Tom Cruise. Also fuck the people that pay to watch movies with Tom Cruise in them.
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.”
You quoted the prosecutors, not the judge…
Good catch, edited for shaming purposes.
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.
