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.

  • awesomesauce309@midwest.social
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    9 months ago

    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@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      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@midwest.social
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        9 months ago

        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@lemmy.ca
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          9 months ago

          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?

          • magnetosphere@kbin.social
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            9 months ago

            Probably very, very few, or none. I know from a small amount of personal conversations, though, that there are quite a few lifelong Republicans who have absolutely had it with Trump. I don’t think they could bring themselves to vote for Biden, however. They’d just skip voting for President altogether.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      So, what, instead Biden should capitulate to avoid offending them?

      We’re going to hear about this shit nonstop til November anyway, it doesn’t matter if Biden pardons him or not. Might as well earn it.

    • magnetosphere@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      It would be hilarious if he pardoned him the day he started his second term (not the day after the election, but the day he actually started his term).

      Won’t happen, but it’s fun to dream.