- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
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.
Trump (like the bulk of the right) believe and act as though laws and norms are used solely to protect yourself and punish those they don’t like. Much like the paradox of tolerance, allowing these people to hide behind rules and norms they won’t respect themselves isn’t healthy for democracy, freedom, or the rule of law - the best way to protect those things is to keep the likes of Trump out of power. You’ve already seen what he’ll do with democracy given half a chance.
Keep him out how? By any means necessary, even illegal and unamerican ways?
Is this the “paradox of democracy” now?
The only way to save law and order is to not follow law and order? Do you realize how Fascist that sounds?
No - I mean actually have him face consequences.
Biden has treated him with kid gloves for multiple reasons - mostly because he doesn’t want to be seen as uncivil or disturbing the status quo. There’s massive scope to do more without getting into illegal territory.
How fascist does it sound, exactly - please enlighten us.
Of course, if we took Trump’s recent insistence that nothing the President does can be seen as illegal, Biden could just send SEAL Team 6 to kill him - but this is the attitude we’re defending the democracy against.
What does “unamerican” mean to you?