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.
That’s a longer sentence than many of the January 6th traitors.
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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.
I always call it a legal system, because theres sure as hell no justice in it.
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”.
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That’s certainly easier than saying anti-post-natalists.
The entire system is tilted and reforms are needed.
Do you anticipate broad generalizations to overlook individual nuances & undermine constructive discussion?
Or is it important to cast blame upon each and every member of a broken system, regardless of whether they may personally be activists for our cause?
Snot Flickerman
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.
Sweet Jesus the amount of extremist propaganda that’s gets peddled these days is mind boggling. To think people like this think they’re better than the people brainwashed by Fox and friends…
Then again… We’re on Lemmy lmfao.
You think every cop, judge, and prosector ain’t corrupt?
Reads like satire, probably as serious as the Herman Cain award lmfao.
The cognitive dissonance of your average Lemming is staggering.
Adding to this. The judge said “It engenders the same fear that January 6 does.” So if this crime is just as bad Jan 6, shouldn’t he be getting the same punishment as other Jan 6 traitors. Like you said, a shorter sentence. Not saying I agree with the judge but pick a side.
To a rich person, losing some (not even all) of their money is the most terrifying thing imaginable.
This is America.
Don’t catch you slippin’ now
Oh I know. Littlejohn committed the real type of crime- financial.
Financial crime against the rich, specifically.
What other kind is there? Stealing from the poor isn’t crime, it’s just business.
Judge: I asked my caddie’s chauffeur what a bank was, and he said it was a place poor people store money that isn’t properly invested. Therefor, robbing a bank is tantamount to that most heinous of crimes; theft of money!
Good ole Judge Whitey
I’ve actually met this guy a few years ago… crazy… he was a pretty nice guy from what I recall - brought homemade cinnamon buns to a party.
Anyways, his friends set up a gofundme to donate for his legal fees, since of course it costs thousands to continue defending himself and his actions…
I’m honestly considering donating to his commissary account and sending him a letter once he’s actually settled in for his sentence.
Sucks that leaking those returns moved the needle exactly 0% in the fight against Trump.
Trump could be eating his own shit in front of a crowd during a rally and his followers will start doing the same.
sounds like a potentially effective piece of performance art if we can find a skilled impersonator.
Would they eat his or their own?
Yes.
I… I could pay to watch this.
Just watch “The Platform”.
Leak a billionaires tax records: 5 years.
Literally rape while a billionaire: 0 years.
Rape a girl behind a dumpster, with rich parents: think about his swimming career! 6 months, 4 with good behavior.
Raping multiple children while supposedly being the spiritual leader of a community: sideways job transfer.
Wasn’t that the rapist Brock Turner?
Rapist Brock Allen Turner, who is going by Allen Turner now.
It’s hard to prosecute rape 30 years later, fairly.
They were able to prove it well enough for E. Jean Carroll’s civil case to consider the assault a fact
No, it was considered more likely than not. A civil trial has a completely different standard from a criminal one.
Becoming president and attempting to overthrow the government: ???
Let’s find out!
Yeah, statute of limitations on rape shouldn’t exist. It’s kinda bonkers it hasn’t been removed yet.
And Biden won’t pardon him.
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.
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.
This is why I shouldn’t be president. I would be doing petty shit like that CONSTANTLY.
I shouldn’t be President either. I’d be like “someone on Lemmy made a really thoughtful post. They should probably be a cabinet member!”
Which is why he should wait until December.
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.
They never have a real one.
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.
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?
When Haley drops there will absolutely be unallocated repubs angry with trump.
Fox news viewers don’t exist in a vacuum. They actually interact with other people, on a daily basis.
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.
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.
But he’s gonna lock down the border and bypass congress to ship weapons to Israel.
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.
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 maximumany punishment for trespassing, that’s some real good moral reasoning that will build a just society, for sure /se; ftfy
deserves the maximum punishment
I literally said the punishment didn’t fit though.
A crime of conscience is exactly what pardons are supposed to be for - doing what is right regardless of the legality or consequences
Lol check out this bs: "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.”
“It engenders the same fear that January 6 does,” Reyes added."
The fear in who?
Fascists
If he really thought it was like january 6th he would have gone leinent on him like all the other j6 defendents.
What an out of touch judge
That’s a tautology right there. A redundant tautology.
Invasion of privacy is a very big deal to our legal system when it is the rich peoples’ big number papers.
Invasion of privacy is a very big deal for rich people
How was he not protected under whistleblower laws?
He wasn’t reporting anything illegal - just wrong.
You mean the ones that protected Snowden, Assange, and Manning?
If people believe in this stupid law thing, they have to actually be willing to enforce it. You can’t just keep giving into cynicism forever.
The United States’ legal system is regularly enforced against the poor and the weak. It is serving its actual purpose
Wow… You’re everywhere today beating your drum, aren’t you? How soon until your manifesto drops in this thread?
Yes, the justice system has and is used disproportionately against the poor and maligned. The work to overcome that continues - your diatribes about the “obvious result of late-stage neoliberalism policies” notwithstanding.
Not sure what you’re upset about. Care to elaborate?
Some people will stop at nothing to defend the 1980’s crime tv status-quo where police are the good guys where no broken law is ever justified except their broken law
Look up UNAX, he wasn’t authorized to even view that information meaning he did technically break the law. Judge is extra for that comment though.
Who cares? It was for the betterment of the country by trying to stop fascism and so he should be pardoned. I’m surprised the jury didn’t just let him off.
He pled guilty. There wasn’t a jury.
🤔 Who wants to bet they intimidated or threatened him to taking that plea deal?
Intimidation and threats is the whole plea deal system by definition. “We’re going to charge you with all these crimes and get you 20 years if you don’t plead guilty to jaywalking”. Doesn’t matter if you have a strong case, or if they don’t have a case at all, when they have even a weak case to ruin your life. As my attorney (long story, civil case) puts it “once something gets to the jury, it can always go either way”.
But, as the bootlickers will say, the courts will be overwhelmed if EVERY person we lock in a cage has their day in court!!! They can cry me a fucking river.
There will never be justice in our country as long as there’s a plea deal system.
This man is a hero.
This is what the US does to heros that speak truth against the owner class.
You’re not wrong but I feel you might be being overly specific. It’s not just the US that protects their wealthy – this would happen anywhere – some places maybe a little less harshly, but plenty would be more harsh, too. The Panama Papers journalist was killed “extrajudicially”
🫡
I don’t know if this sort of thing is allowed, but if outsiders can donate money to his prison commissary account, I will definitely donate.
Would you donate for Assange? Same policy applied on him.
Assange didn’t steal anything.
Careful guys, he’s a hero
Funny thing is that probably in prison they will clap when he enters his cell
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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!
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
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.
I’m being blocked https://edition.cnn.com/browser-blocked (They seem to block “I don’t care about cookies” extension. But the internet is becoming unusable because of all the cookie spam!)
Archive link: https://archive.is/eyFmw
I remember when everything was great on the Internet before the “accept cookies” button 😢
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When they took your data without notifying you? What was great about that?
Still more time than trump will ever serve.
Even if Trump got the maximum sentence for all of his crimes, he wouldn’t live another 5 years. (I don’t mean to imply he’d be Epstein’d, or even Chauvin’d – though i guess that’s possible – I just mean he’s old, fat, eats unhealthily – I can’t think of a softer, weaker person. And “dying of old age” happens a lot younger when you’re under a lot of stress.)
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In a sane world, he would have been given a Medal of Honor
Hey may catch a pardon depending on how November goes. Could get ugly if Trump wins, too. The Donald is not a forgiving type…
There is a zero percent chance of Biden pardoning him.
If AOC is elected president then maybe.
Naw Biden’s not going to do it, and even if asked why not, he’ll give some nonsense about letting the nation heal.
And also pardoning him would be corruption
I’m curious, in what way?
The man broke the law in order to publish documents damaging to Trump. Biden pardoning him would be seen as a reward for attacking his political opponents
