A former Internal Revenue Service contractor, who leaked tax information about Donald Trump and other wealthy individuals to news organizations, got his job to intentionally to spread the confidential records, according to Justice Department prosecutors.
Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, pleaded guilty in October to unauthorized disclosure of tax return and return information. U.S. District Judge Ana Reye scheduled sentencing for Jan. 29. Prosecutors recommended Tuesday he receive the maximum sentence of five years in prison.
“After applying to work as an IRS consultant with the intention of accessing and disclosing tax returns, Defendant weaponized his access to unmasked taxpayer data to further his own personal, political agenda, believing that he was above the law,” wrote prosecutors Corey Amundson, chief of the Justice Department’s public integrity section, Jennifer Clarke and Jonathan Jacobson.
He needs to be pardoned or at least have his sentence commuted. But I highly doubt that Biden would do it.
A precedent where your followers break the law in your name can be a dangerous war of escalation between opponents.
Trump already set that precedent when he pardoned Roger Stone.
That’s exactly my point. Now people want more. Escalate it. Same bullshit as Israel/palestine. Well the first guy did “x” first, then the other guy says but you did the other thing first, etc., etc…
The height of stupidity, there is no end of the blame game of grievances, manufactured or real.
No, I’m not saying “both sides”, one side is objectively better (even if marginally), I’m saying a war of escalating tit-for-tat justifications is useless.
E: in comparison, according the following comments who apparently haven’t a clue and completely misrepresent my intent and argument: Biden should release any democrats from prison or reinstate democrats in positions after they left due to any impropriety. That’s the war of escalation I’m talking about, not simply following the law.
So only the one side should abuse their power? They are not going to stop abusing it just because their opponents took the high ground.
So everyone should abuse their power? Are you willfully blind to where that goes?
Are you willfully blind to what happens if you let your opponents oppress and abuse you without fighting back in kind? I am not going to the gulag. Have fun there.
Your methodology ends up with a dictator seizing power to put all their opponents in the gulag. All you’re saying is that you hope your dictator wins first. You’re absolutely clueless about geopolitical history if you don’t understand how this works.
I don’t see you offering a viable alternative. Your method is to just acquiesce? The rule of law has already failed. Trump is not in jail. The Supreme Court (1/3 appointed by Trump) is on the take from conservative billionaires. Congressional corruption put Gorsuch on the Court rather than Garland (longest vacancy by 3x the next longest), then turned around and replaced Ginsberg with an extremely quick turnaround.
The failure to act in kind has already weakened this country irreparably. Let’s keep letting them do what they do. It’s worked out terribly so far.
So yeah, I would rather my dictator than their’s, but I am going to get their’s.
It doesn’t matter if it’s your point or not, it’s still a wrong-headed way of thinking about the situation because the world doesn’t revolve around fearing what Republicans will do if a Democrat pardons a righteous man. He should be pardoned regardless.
You are creating the us vs. them situation you’re accusing you opponent of engaging in specifically by making that argument. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
We do not simply stop doing what is right because some assholes might pardon evil people in retaliation. We do what is right regardless, because that’s the whole point of righteousness.
Republicans will pardon their own anyway so it doesn’t even matter. We need to do the same.
My point doesn’t matter? So you discard my point to make yours? What the heck kind of argument is that? My point wasn’t about right vs wrong, it was about taking knee-jerk retaliatory action devoid of nuance or reason.
You accused me of making it about fear of republicans, that’s doing what you accused me of doing by “creating” the argument. I said nothing about appeasement or letting them have their way to avoid trouble.
In no way shape or form do I think actual and real harm should remain unaddressed. Bullshit must be met head on, but with measured and real responses. But just knee-jerk reaction? No.
Your point is irrelevant, because it is a fundamental misrepresentation of the situation you are imposing because you have an ideological agenda. One which we will not be bullied or manipulated into submitting to.
You’re not even really reading or thinking about what I’m saying, you’re just repeating what you said before like a robot. And I don’t argue with robots.
Misrepresentation of the situation I’m imposing…wow. Way to twist my words. I make a point, stick to it, and you accuse me of bullying because you’d rather I bend a knee to you? Fine. Feel free to engage in your tit-for-tat war. I’ll just hang over here to you finally set each other on fire while screaming “the other guy did it first”. What a fucking waste of time.
“your followers”
More like “those who hate the other guy”
Biden wouldn’t want to risk setting a precedent where his sides shortcomings might be also exposed.
It is in this way that the ruling class is bipartisan in upholding its privileges.
That seems like a rational take and I agree with you. Curious why the down votes? Because you’re alluding to Biden having shortcomings at all? Or because it’s perceived as a both sides are the same argument?
It’s hard to accept we’re living in such a tribal world. There’s no more nuance or middle ground in the majority it seems.
He’s getting down voted because most people in this thread are foaming at the mouth.
I hate trump as much as the next guy. What this guy did, tho, is currently against the law. Should the law be changed? Should he have gone through a whistle blower process? Questions to be asked.
But as of today, you can’t purposely get a job at the IRS to leak information that the IRS wasn’t ready/allowed to release. Full stop.
The folks arguing here that he should be pardoned or who are enraged that he is even being charged are presenting childish arguments. There’s a theme on Lemmy that I’ve noticed. Tribalism is strong as fuck.
You heard it here folks, avoiding the appearance of impropriety is the most partisan thing you can do
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