Posted on 10/13/2023 10:45:23 AM PDT by grundle
A financial consultant who performed contract work for the IRS pleaded guilty Thursday to leaking reams of confidential tax returns filed by the wealthiest Americans, including those of then-President Donald Trump.
Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, admitted in D.C. federal court that he obtained thousands of individuals’ tax returns by accessing an IRS database, and then leaked the materials to the New York Times and ProPublica beginning in 2019.
The news organizations published blockbuster reports based on the trove of data, showing how Trump and the wealthiest Americans employed financial strategies to slash their federal tax bills, in some cases down to zero.
At a plea hearing Thursday, Littlejohn admitted he leaked Trump’s tax returns to the Times, which published articles based on the data in the months before the 2020 election. The returns of other wealthy individuals, including tech billionaires Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk, became the basis of reports in ProPublica, analyzing how the richest Americans manage to evade the federal government’s tax bite. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
The unprecedented leak of Americans’ confidential financial data renewed a debate in Congress about tax policy amid historic levels of income inequality, and served as an X-ray into Trump’s secretive finances after years in which he waged legal battles to protect their confidentiality.
U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes rebuked Littlejohn several times from the bench and said whatever ends he had could not justify his means. “I cannot overstate how troubled I am by what occurred,” Reyes said.
the former president could come deliver his own statement at Littlejohn’s sentencing, set for Jan. 29.
(Excerpt) Read more at webcache.googleusercontent.com ...
Trump needs to sue him and everyone who received the stolen property.
Here’s your slap on the wrist. (pat!) You’re free to go.
He will be sent to bed for one night without his milk and cookies.
Most want him keel hauled.
Which USA Senator told him to do it?
The judge is troubled. Oooooooooooooooooooooh. Sounds serious!
It seems to me at age 69 that the average person today has much less integrity than they did in my youth. I learned yesterday that classified sections of the F117 and F35 manuals had been leaked on gaming sites so that the people who held those clearances could win online arguments about what the jets could do. When I had a clearance such a thing was inconceivable. How immature and lacking in integrity are the people who we must trust with our secrets?
I would think anyone whos info he leaked can bring a civil suit against him and the IRS.
...amid historic levels of income inequality...
They say that like it's a bad thing.
Once again, we’re throwing people under the bus that had little to do with the damage being done in this country. Those directives came from a higher source.
Yes, that's the real question here. Who put him up to this? He didn't do it for laughs and, given the corrupt nature of the D.C. courts, I'm sure he was assured that nothing bad would happen to him if he did this and was caught. I'm skeptical that anything will come of this, though.
Yes, of course, should have thought of that myself.
— Lily Tomlin
How about all the dems I saw begging someone to leak Trump’s taxes? Wonder if hte guy got any kind of payoff?
HOW MUCH DID HE GET PAID??? THAT ISN’T A FREEBEE
I’m sure they promised him something to be the guy to take the fall. There is no chance they didn’t made it worth his while to plead guilty to one charge. The DOJ HAD to have him plead guilty since they couldn’t have a trial with evidence introduced to show what led up to his taking those actions and leaking the tax information. I’m positive he did it at someone else’s direction.
They HAD to charge him with something less others started leaking information about those on the left. Now they have a “mission accomplished” while at the same time a narrative that they take the privacy of tax-payers tax returns very serious.
This way they got the information they wanted revealed regarding Trump leaked to the leftist media with little inconvenience to them. As a bonus they created leftist outrage of “see how much rich people make?”
Littlejohn will get something very light such as 12 months probation and a weekend of community service, plus possibly a small fine. I’m sure the fine will be paid by others, and the guilty plea and conviction will quietly be removed from his record at some point in the future.
We are required to give personal and financial information to the irs. We should be able to trust the irs.
(guffaws and chuckles).
The guy who accessed the information and released it needs to be stripped of all his assets and thrown into jail. For good.
He should get the wheel of torture
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