The man who stole and leaked former President Donald Trump and thousands of others’ 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.
“What you did in attacking the sitting president of the United States was an attack on our constitutional democracy,” Reyes said. “We’re talking about someone who … pulled off the biggest heist in IRS history.”
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.
Prosecutors said Littlejohn went through great lengths to steal the tax records undetected, exploiting system loopholes, downloading data to an Apple iPod and uploading the information on a private website he later deleted.
Reyes was also critical of the Justice Department’s decision to only bring one count against Littlejohn.
“The fact that he did what he did and he’s facing one felony count, I have no words for,” the judge said. Prosecutors argued that the one count covers the multitude of Littlejohn’s thefts and leaks.
“A free press and public engagement with the media are critical to any healthy democracy, but stealing and leaking private, personal tax information strips individuals of the legal protection of their most sensitive data,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing recommending Littlejohn be sentenced to the maximum of five years in prison.
“I acted out of a sincere misguided belief,” Littlejohn said in court Monday, adding that he was serving the country and that people had a right to the tax information.
“We as a country make the best decisions when we are all properly informed,” Littlejohn said.
Littlejohn added that he was “aware of the potential consequences” of his actions and knew he would one day be here, in federal court, facing those consequences.
“My actions undermine the fragile faith,” in government institutions in the US, Littlejohn said.
If revealing the tax records of a president is equally as much a threat to your democracy as an armed mob storming the capitol, your democracy sucks. Well, either that or the judge is outrageously biased and should be fired immediately. Maybe both.
I mean, Donald Trump literally sold the Resolute Desk for ad space to Goya, and that hasn't stopped his reelection bid any more than his recorded participation in treason.
I'm not sure our so-called democracy is accomplishing much.
Wait. Is the only charge "stealing" tax records of president? In sane countries not publishing president's tax and income records is crime. Even in not so sane Russia. Even for only candidates.
That judge is acting as if he stole the god damned constitution or something. He didn't take anything of value, gain any kind of monetary reward, and didn't do any damage to those he "stole" from.
This is all information we collectively pay for and should be public. If this is somehow damaging our democracy, to the extent that it's equivalent to attempting to overthrow Congress.... Fucking forbes should be in gitmo for their "richest people" articles.
The simple fact that they advertise their wealth, while simultaneously screaming treason about their tax records being released tells you all you really need to know about the American tax system. In a fair system we should be able to work out exactly how much tax everyone pays by their net worth, instead someone's going to jail for lifting a corner of the veil that these rich fucks hide behind.
You misunderstand: It is not threatening democracy, it is threatening what is called democracy in the US of A. Like nothing that is called AI is really AI.
Besides this work, for more than a decade Ana has devoted significant time to her pro bono representations of asylum seekers and refugee organizations, including numerous appellate matters for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and impact litigation for Human Rights First,
Lmao, somehow I don't believe this. It's incredibly ironic that she helped people fearing bad government and now she is protecting bad government. What a dunce.
Also she was nominated by Biden which is the most perplexing fact:
Reyes’ Senate confirmation came nine months after Biden submitted her nomination in May 2022.
Biden is not on your side. He's not on the evil side, so we should support him, but the enemy of your enemy is only your friend in battle.
Also being LGBTQ+ doesn't make her reasonable or rational.
Any ambitious lawyer works on pro-bono cases for exposure and experience. I have no doubt she sincerely supports asylum seekers and refugee organizations, as she could have volunteered her services anywhere. Being on the right side of one issue doesn't make her right about other issues.
We don't have to guess where Ana Reyes stands, because she put her thoughts into words, her words into judgement, and we can see her judgement is fundamentally skewed away from justice.
On the one hand, you have a violent insurrection, some of whom had the intent to assassinate multiple government leaders. On the other hand, a guy uploaded some dude's tax returns.
Judge Ana Reyes needs to have her tax forms routinely shown to the public. If she believes a tax form should hold a secret, that means a secret line of finances and she believes in different rules for different types of people.
“Land of the free” doesn’t mean you are free to commit crimes. Even if the crime is against a complete shit bag.
I don’t agree with the sentencing but I really don’t see how your comment makes any sense for anyone that isn’t young and ignorant.
If someone stole your personal tax information and plastered it across the internet I doubt you’d have this take. Shit is still illegal and it doesn’t matter who the victim is even if they are a complete shit bag.
Five YEARS in prison for a white collar crime where he personally gained nothing from it. Many of the Jan 6 attackers are already scot-free and they tried to overthrow the fucking government.
Well I mean, this is breaking the law to expose broken aspects of a financial system, government and also possibly identify other criminals too. You can't just represent this as "doing illegal shit", it is like calling killing for self defense "illegal shit". It is illegal yes and a very serious crime too but not "illegal shit". In fact if someone who kills for self defense gets a longer prison sentence than someone who kills for fun because the latter person has some connections etc then it is probably the system who is doing some "illegal shit". Strict adherence to the legal system and definitions only makes sense if it is not biased towards protecting the powerful but unfortunately it is.
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.
Yes because the ultra wealthy have NEVER commited a crime against the American people. We salute Mr. Littlejohn for your heroism. Today, you are called a terrorist but tomorrow you will remember for your service to the American public and the world at large. May you live a long life and prosper by any means necessary.
And Judge Ana Reyes was pissed that 5 years was the maximum sentence permitted under law. But, when you consider that now he's a felon, that record will be stuck with him long after he is released from prison. But that's why his appeal is so important. Because if his conviction is overturned, then he doesn't have a felon record
What he did was morally justified, but functionally meaningless. We've had a steady leak of "rich people have rigged the system in their favor" stories since the Panama and Paradise Papers (and, in all honesty, long before that as well). There's no political activism that comes out of these revelations, though.
Simply knowing that you're living under a despotic oligarchy does nothing to make that governance change. Particularly not when the bulk of news media and political organizing is owned and operated by those same oligarchs.
It appears the feds didn't need a full four years to build a case against this guy, either. Crazy how quick and efficient our justice system can be when its aimed at a non-billionaire.
I think she's taking the piss so that he can appeal.
Ana C. Reyes Notable cases:
In 2008, on behalf of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, Reyes filed a brief in support of three Guinean women seeking asylum in the U.S.
In 2018, Reyes was part of the legal team challenging the Trump administration's restrictions on refugees entering the United States through ports of entry.
In 2021, Reyes represented Spain in a dispute over the withdrawal of economic incentives for renewable projects.
Don't you guys have some freedom of information law like in other civilised countries to request such information legally without stealing? If I wanted to know the taxes of Rishi Sunak I could just send a formal letter to the government and they would give me everything. Well, they probably won't give much on Rishi while he is in office as it might be a national security risk (that's the reason the government denied releasing Sunak's helicopter flight information and I agree with that), but once he leaves that should be available.
Can we demand a fair system now? Can we demand the rich pay their fair share now? This isn't the first or the last curtain lifting. It definitely won't be if we just post it and then let that energy die. We as individuals need to get involved somehow and we need direction for this to change. Don't expect the circlejerk to end just because more of us have seen it.
That is one of the things that are drastically changing right now, imo the most worrying thing. We see how unfair the taxation is on concrete example, we see how our governments support extreme war crimes on concrete examples, we see how politicians ignore the law to enrich themselves and others. If we let it slide, they henceforth will always do it in the open. I am not yet sure to what that will lead, but I fear not to anything good.
Charles LittleJohn makes me feel safe and proud. It's our current credit system that " strips individuals of the legal protection of their most sensitive data" No one agreed to give Equifax the data they leaked to the world.
That Reyes character has a weird, prudish idea about taxes. Actually, when someone compares inane things to Jan 6 I just assume they're a partisan hack. Maybe unwittingly, but still a hack.
Our faulty (for the general people) systems need to be transparent and reworked. Not hidden and protecting the oligarchy and wealthy corrupt individuals who serve them.
To be fair, attacking the richest people in America is like attacking our legal system. It shouldn’t be the case, but judges/police/prosecutors are going to side with the money.
Little John doesn’t just expand his apartment with galvanized square steel, he’s a hero of the people getting fucked by the most dangerous government on the planet.
Feels weird reading a thread praising someone called Littlejohn, rather than mocking them for being a bootlicking gobshite, but then I grew up in a place where I had to hear about the opinions of this Twat