Charles Littlejohn: Man who stole and leaked Trump tax records sentenced to 5 years in prison ( www.cnn.com )

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.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

That's a longer sentence than many of the January 6th traitors.

LEDZeppelin ,

This. Jan 6 traitors are getting slap on their wrists and pat on their backs

SnotFlickerman ,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

All Cops are Bastards, All Judges are Bastards, All Prosecutors are Bastards.

The entire fucking "justice" system is tilted towards forgiving and enabling right-wing violence while labeling left-wing protest as "terrorism" that justifies lethal force.

Deceptichum ,
@Deceptichum@kbin.social avatar

I always call it a legal system, because theres sure as hell no justice in it.

magnetosphere ,
@magnetosphere@kbin.social avatar

Ooh, that’s good. I’ll update my vocabulary, the way I did when I started referring to people as “pro birth”, because they certainly don’t deserve to be called “pro life”.

Deceptichum ,
@Deceptichum@kbin.social avatar

That’s certainly easier than saying anti-post-natalists.

Deceptichum ,
@Deceptichum@kbin.social avatar

This is America.

xhieron ,
@xhieron@lemmy.world avatar

Don't catch you slippin' now

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Oh I know. Littlejohn committed the real type of crime- financial.

originalucifer ,
@originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com avatar

too bad judge Reyes isnt going to tell us how serious it is to steal classified documents and sell them.

j4k3 ,
@j4k3@lemmy.world avatar

Selling classified documents to Russian and Chinese interests is standard practice for the oligarchy though. Some petty serf peasant slapping a few feudal lords, that is a real crime in Neo Feudal America.

paddirn ,

Yet holding onto classified documents, then hiding them and lying about it to investigators for months gets nothing but a very stern finger-wagging?

Concave1142 ,

So who's donating to his commissary? I'd be willing to throw a 20 every now and then.

slurpeesoforion ,

Got a link?

gAlienLifeform ,
@gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world avatar

To donate directly to his prison commissary, the basic instructions are at the bottom of this page here

https://web.archive.org/web/20240129195016/https://www.bop.gov/inmates/communications.jsp

However each of those methods is going to require getting a match on the inmate locator, and since he isn't actually incarcerated yet there aren't any matching results

One other thing I found, though I have no way of knowing if it's legit - https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.gofundme.com/f/charles-littlejohns-legal-defense-fund

(title is legal defense, but text says "defray his legal fees and expenses during incarceration.")

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

And Biden won't pardon him.

Deceptichum ,
@Deceptichum@kbin.social avatar

But he's gonna lock down the border and bypass congress to ship weapons to Israel.

awesomesauce309 ,

Trump and his base already conflate his many court cases catching up to him as the DOJ sent to stop a political rival. If Biden just pardoned the person who “stole” Trumps taxes, we’d hear about it nonstop til November.

Deceptichum ,
@Deceptichum@kbin.social avatar

Don’t do something because it might piss of the Republicans is not gonna cut it as an excuse.

And as we have all seen, they will straight up invent a reason to complain nonstop until November if they don’t have a real one.

awesomesauce309 ,

The guy chose to commit the crime. The republicans are looking for anything that sticks in their idiot bases brain and “Biden chooses to pardon anti trump criminal” will be on the fox or oan scroll until it’s burned into their eyes. Pardoning is Biden’s option, but if he does, that helps trump with his base in a tight race. Obviously he wouldn’t pardon.

floofloof ,

How many votes for Biden do you lose if the Fox News viewers decide not to vote for him? Are there many people watching that channel who are on the fence?

homesweethomeMrL ,

They never have a real one.

AnonTwo ,

He really shouldn't. What the guy did was still legally wrong, and he probably knew it and weighed he would rather take jail time and commit it. A less scrupulous person could do worse things, which is why those laws are in place.

If he could somehow reduce the sentence that would be great, and if that is on the table he should, but some punishment should still occur.

He's a vigilante hero for what he did, but vigilantes are still criminals. The main issue here is that the punishment is clearly wrong, and the message is wrong, as the judge seems to think this is paramount to treason, which it isn't.

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

A crime of conscience is exactly what pardons are supposed to be for - doing what is right regardless of the legality or consequences

gAlienLifeform , (edited )
@gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world avatar

Yes, how could we possibly expect the president to pardon someone who did something legally wrong, that defeats the whole point of pardons! /s

Anyway, have fun arguing that someone who metaphorically ran into a burning building to rescue a baby deserves the maximum any punishment for trespassing, that's some real good moral reasoning that will build a just society, for sure /s

e; ftfy

bustrpoindextr ,

Aight, I mean sure. It was wrong, but 5 years? I understand that not all judges sentence in the same way but 5 years? Insurrection gets basically gets butt pats and this guy gets 5 years?

OpenStars ,
@OpenStars@startrek.website avatar

I hope he manages to survive them.

Epstein jeopardized rich people and got suicided.

jonne ,

If you mess with wealthy people, they'll come at you fast with prison time. See also Elisabeth Holmes and SBF (I don't necessarily disagree with their sentences, but you don't see someone that scammed a bunch of poor people get the same sentences).

DharkStare ,
@DharkStare@lemmy.world avatar

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.”

Because stealing and releasing tax documents is the same thing as attempting to violently overthrow the government.

Deceptichum ,
@Deceptichum@kbin.social avatar

Is the judge part of the Sinclair media group?

homesweethomeMrL ,

In a manner of speaking, yes.

SnotFlickerman ,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Fucking judges are blowhards stuck up their own ass wanting to make the judgments they hand down sound more important than they are.

It's all about feeding their giant fucking egos.

Hegar ,
@Hegar@kbin.social avatar

“your actions were also a threat to our democracy.”

This is one of those exciting sentences where you have to substitute 'democracy' for 'rich people's yacht money'.

AnonTwo ,

So the judge is in with trump. Hope none of his cases go that guys way.

Like yeah, he broke the law and needed to be punished. But it wasn't government secrets, which i'm pretty sure is already legally coded separately from this guys crimes, and also neither of which are treason, which would be the capital attack.

So the guy blatantly spoke against his own legal experience for a political swing.

SeaJ ,

Apparently Norway must hate democracy since all of their tax returns are public.

Chainweasel ,

How did they get him tried and sentenced so fast?

Every time I question why Trump isn't in jail already people keep telling me "these things take time".

Given that Trump is a high profile case, allowing them to take twice the time of a normal person would have still put him behind bars already.

AnneBonny ,

They didn't try him, he pled pleaded(?) guilty.

In October, Charles Littlejohn, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized disclosures of income tax returns.

MonsiuerPatEBrown ,

Let's hope he didn't sleep under any bridges, too. That would be what they call a repeat offender.

BigMacHole ,

That's RIGHT! Releasing Tax Returns gets you MORE Jail Time then trying to violently overthrow the United States Government and HANG the Vice President! That will teach Hostile Countries to MESS with US!

gAlienLifeform ,
@gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world avatar

The way we turned our backs on Afghani interpreters who tried to get asylum here should have shown Charles Littlejohn what happens to people who fight for America

jeremyparker ,

He probably knew. There are more stories of bad outcomes for that kind of shit than good ones. The fact that he did it anyway is why his actions are so admirable and heroic.

groupofcrows ,

This man is a hero.

AllonzeeLV ,

This is what the US does to heros that speak truth I to the owner class.

doctorcrimson ,

Pretty damn fast compared to how long its taking to prosecute Trump.

PrettyLights ,

...because the leaker plead guilty. If he went to trial this would have taken longer.

Does no one read the article or understand basic legal processes?

doctorcrimson ,

Technically the pleading guilty part is also in the footer below the post for users on desktop, but I was making a statement about due processes rather than complaining Charles case was too quick. Kind of akin to how a person mentions the beauty of the colors clouds or the dread incurred by a coming storm just for somebody else to come along and yell "...Obviously. Does nobody watch the forecast or understand basic meteorology?"

generalpotato ,

Exposing a convicted criminal is a crime against the US and its legal foundation? GTFOH.

On the other hand, maybe said “legal foundation” is said to protect those with money and influence and punish those who dare to move beyond the systemic injustices present. Maybe this judge was correct after all.

andrew_bidlaw ,
@andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works avatar

Is there a way to write him a letter? Idk how your prison system works, but this dude needs some encouragement for what he did.

gAlienLifeform ,
@gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world avatar

Is there a way to write him a letter?

Theoretically, yes, that should be a big old 1st amendment free speech right, but since this is a legal right for a poor person expect it to be a big pain to exercise

Anyway, all the instructions should be on this page here

https://web.archive.org/web/20240129195016/https://www.bop.gov/inmates/communications.jsp

However each of those methods is going to require getting a match on the inmate locator, and since I don't think he is actually incarcerated yet there aren't any matching results (and it will probably take some time after he's been incarcerated for his record to start showing up)

I also found what looks like a GoFundMe page for him, which might be a way to get in contact with his family and friends, which might be a better way of contacting him (among other things, the prison email system only allows inmates to send messages to approved contacts and they're limited to 30 of those, so sending everything to someone with regular email who could be one of those contacts and just forward things along might work best) - https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.gofundme.com/f/charles-littlejohns-legal-defense-fund

I should add I haven't verified that GoFundMe is legitimate, but it looks like it is

iamjackflack ,

Biden needs to pardon this guy right after elections

ripcord ,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

He won't. Man drives me nuts.

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