(RepublicanNews.org) – The former IRS contractor who leaked the tax returns of former President Donald Trump will now be a former free citizen after being hit with a five-year prison sentence.
On Monday, January 29th, Charles Littlejohn was sentenced for violating Trump’s privacy by leaking the former president’s tax information to the media. The sentence included 36 months of supervised release and a fine of $5,000.
Judge Ana Reyes, who handed down the sentence, said that Littlejohn’s actions were “an intolerable attack” on the constitutional democracy of the US. She said that according to the press, Democracy often “dies in darkness” and added that it “also dies in lawlessness.” Reyes told Littlejohn that “numerous lawful means” exist by which “to bring things to light,” and that the former president wasn’t obligated to expose his tax returns. She added that if people don’t like him, they “could vote for someone else” or “run against” Trump, but that violating his privacy isn’t the way to fight against him.
According to federal prosecutors, Littlejohn specifically and deliberately sought a position as a consultant for the IRS in 2019 in order to gain access to Trump’s tax returns and leak the documents.
From 2008 to 2013, he worked for the government and military contractor Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation, which specialized in intelligence. In 2017, he returned as a consultant, a move prosecutors said Littlejohn made to work with the IRS and gain access to Trump’s private tax records. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said that the ex-IRS consultant viewed Trump as a threat to democracy and felt compelled to try and stop him.
During the trial, the prosecutors alleged that the defendant “weaponized his access” to data in order to advance a “personal political agenda” and believed himself to be “above the law.” They said although freedom of the press and the public’s right to engage with the media “are critical to any healthy democracy,” that when Littlejohn stole and leaked “private, personal tax information,” he stripped Trump of his legal protections.
The judge reiterated the prosecutors’ positions, stating that Littlejohn “did not make a snap judgment” but “a series of decisions” culminating in a long-term scheme to violate the former president’s privacy. Reyes added that the court must send a message to others that such conduct is unacceptable and that the US is “a nation of laws.”
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