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.
Biden wouldn’t want to risk setting a precedent where his sides shortcomings might be also exposed.
It is in this way that the ruling class is bipartisan in upholding its privileges.
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.
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.
Does he have a go fund me?
I’m guessing I’m going to have the most hated opinion on this. But fuck that person. I get a lot of people want to celebrate it as “person had to commit a crime so that they could point out crimes being committed by Trump” but ultimately this wrecks public trust of an institution, of which the IRS doesn’t exactly enjoy a lot of it to begin with. And if we don’t have trust in our government, it’s doesn’t matter, we’re fuck Trump won.
This whole thing, literally proves the argument of “weaponizing Government”. This person walked into the IRS, had an agenda, and was absolutely going to abuse their position to make a point that they had zero legal right to make. Did anyone directly tell them to do the thing? No. Was there a lot of talking heads that might have colored this person’s opinion about Trump? You better believe it. So no one “directly” weaponized this person, but someone would be hard pressed to convince me it wasn’t indirect. Which brings up the question of, are we a nation of laws or vendettas? Do we settle our beef in court without blood or are we just finding out who can sneak the most without getting noticed?
I get it, I don’t like Trump either, BUT NOT LIKE THIS. This is too far. This person is no hero, they violated the law and even worse abused public trust. If we don’t have public trust, if we’re just celebrating when someone takes the piss on an oath to obey the law (which IRS employees take), then we have nothing defensible. We’re literally talking about the shit that we’re going after Trump for, violations of his oath to defend the Constitution and uphold the law.
If we’re violating laws because “trust me bro, it’ll be worth it” then the laws mean nothing. I get it, too long have we had our faith in this system forsake us. Too many rich assholes bend the law to their whim to escape actual persecution, so “it’s okay to rob from the rich to give to the poor every once and awhile”. But that’s actually not how we solve things, that’s just gasoline to make things even worse.
Acting above the law doesn’t always mean, you get away with it. Acting above the law means, that you don’t view the law as always being a guiding principal. That sometimes, somethings require operating outside of the law. No matter the consequences. That the ends justify the means. And if we aren’t able to hold enough faith to believe that the law will eventually ring out and that we can eventually find enough justice in this world…
Hang it up, we’re done here. Because that’s all that’s holding any democracy together. Faith, blind faith, sometimes dumb faith that we’re all going to do the thing we promised to do, and that we’re all going to come together when that’s violated. It’s easy and quick to settle a grudge with fists but a lasting peace and understanding comes from settling it with our minds and voices. Breaking laws to expose Trump’s crimes, that’s not a victory for democracy, that’s just a victory for people who don’t like Trump.
Your legal system exists to protect itself and the ruling class, it is not just, it is indefensible.
This person sacrificed themselves to bring to light one small part of the injustices you allow to perpetuate. They’re a hero, you’re a problem.
Your legal system exists to protect itself and the ruling class, it is indefensible
Well the obvious question. What system would you have it replaced with?
This person sacrificed themselves to bring to light one small part of the injustices you allow to perpetuate
And this person has now also made it where everyone will ask, “if this person existed in the IRS, how do we know there are not more?” This is how distrust gets sown. This is how the IRS loses more funding. This is exactly how “ruling class” gets even less oversight. This is how these people, you want to go after, get away with it. This person didn’t solve anything, they made it worse.
That person’s is absolutely heading to jail on the 29th. Where’s Trump at the moment? You think you got some sort of win?
They’re a hero, your a problem
They are going to jail and will likely never have the right to vote ever again in their life. I can still vote for a different world than the one we currently live in.
So if you think this “solved” something, then you didn’t understand the problem. I’m just going to tell you, this kind of tit for tat stuff. We won’t survive it. Every hero ultimately turns into a Robespierre. We don’t solve this with a single person, we solve it together, otherwise we don’t solve it period.
Yes, you’ve identified the real crux of the issue. All Americans have great trust and respect for the IRS, and Mr Littlejohn’s actions might erode some fraction of some fraction of that undeserved trust and respect. Oh, the humanity.
