- cross-posted to:
- usa
- cross-posted to:
- usa
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.
And Biden won’t pardon him.
Trump and his base already conflate his many court cases catching up to him as the DOJ sent to stop a political rival. If Biden just pardoned the person who “stole” Trumps taxes, we’d hear about it nonstop til November.
So, what, instead Biden should capitulate to avoid offending them?
We’re going to hear about this shit nonstop til November anyway, it doesn’t matter if Biden pardons him or not. Might as well earn it.
It would be hilarious if he pardoned him the day he started his second term (not the day after the election, but the day he actually started his term).
Won’t happen, but it’s fun to dream.
This is why I shouldn’t be president. I would be doing petty shit like that CONSTANTLY.
I shouldn’t be President either. I’d be like “someone on Lemmy made a really thoughtful post. They should probably be a cabinet member!”
Which is why he should wait until December.
Don’t do something because it might piss of the Republicans is not gonna cut it as an excuse.
And as we have all seen, they will straight up invent a reason to complain nonstop until November if they don’t have a real one.
The guy chose to commit the crime. The republicans are looking for anything that sticks in their idiot bases brain and “Biden chooses to pardon anti trump criminal” will be on the fox or oan scroll until it’s burned into their eyes. Pardoning is Biden’s option, but if he does, that helps trump with his base in a tight race. Obviously he wouldn’t pardon.
How many votes for Biden do you lose if the Fox News viewers decide not to vote for him? Are there many people watching that channel who are on the fence?
When Haley drops there will absolutely be unallocated repubs angry with trump.
He really shouldn’t. What the guy did was still legally wrong, and he probably knew it and weighed he would rather take jail time and commit it. A less scrupulous person could do worse things, which is why those laws are in place.
If he could somehow reduce the sentence that would be great, and if that is on the table he should, but some punishment should still occur.
He’s a vigilante hero for what he did, but vigilantes are still criminals. The main issue here is that the punishment is clearly wrong, and the message is wrong, as the judge seems to think this is paramount to treason, which it isn’t.
A crime of conscience is exactly what pardons are supposed to be for - doing what is right regardless of the legality or consequences
Yes, how could we possibly expect the president to pardon someone who did something legally wrong, that defeats the whole point of pardons! /s
Anyway, have fun arguing that someone who metaphorically ran into a burning building to rescue a baby deserves
the maximumany punishment for trespassing, that’s some real good moral reasoning that will build a just society, for sure /se; ftfy
I literally said the punishment didn’t fit though.