If Donald Trump’s tax returns were the only ones Charles Littlejohn leaked to the press, he probably would have been given a lighter sentence. Since he dared to release the records of George Soros, they threw the book at him. He also illegally leaked the filings of “thousands of other wealthy people” but those don’t really matter.
Tax leaker sentenced
On Monday, January 29, District Court Judge Ana Reyes handed down the “maximum statutory sentence” of five years in prison to 38-year-old tax return leaker Charles Littlejohn. He deserved that, she noted because his crimes were so “egregious.”
The former IRS consultant handed over Donald Trump’s returns while he was in his first term as president, “as well as the filings of thousands of other wealthy people to the news media.”
Even though she’s a Biden appointee, Judge Reyes was a tad miffed that Littlejohn unilaterally decided that the public needed to see Donald Trump’s tax returns, calling what he did “an attack on our constitutional democracy.”
She specifically pointed out that “Trump was under no legal obligation to release his filings.” No matter how controversial a public figure is, she scolded, “it cannot be open season on our elected officials.”
She didn’t make a big deal of the fact that George Soros was another victim of the tax return dump. It’s not healthy to put that name into the headlines.
She was glad that Trump and Jeff Bezos were listed because that gave her high profile names to justify the max sentence. She really gave Littlejohn the five year stretch because he dared to out the New World Order’s patron saint.
Public right to know
If Soros’ name wasn’t on the list, Reyes may have been seriously tempted to agree with Littlejohn’s lawyers. They argued for “leniency in the form of a sentence of between 12 and 18 months.” They had the weight of public opinion behind them.
At the time, they suggested, their client “believed the public had the right to know how much Trump and the others paid in taxes.” Okay, so he should have left the tax liability of George Soros out of it, they concede. “He has since come to regret leaking the information.”
Mr. Littlejohn simply got a little carried away, his attorneys demonstrated. After he “gave Trump’s records to the New York Times” they published a “blockbuster report in September 2020, shortly before the presidential election.” It sort of went to his head. Trump didn’t do anything illegal in his filings, he just “paid little or nothing in taxes.”
It was the same story for the rest. He dumped those records en masse with ProPublica. They quickly “published a string of stories showing how some maneuver to erase their tax bills.” All perfectly legal.
Florida Senator Rick Scott was another of the victims. He was on hand in the courtroom for sentencing. He didn’t like having his tax returns being reported by the media and gave the judge an earful about it. He would have preferred to see the defendant locked in a cage for life but Judge Reyes already had her mind made up.
Besides that, her hands are tied. The sentencing guidelines said the most she could hand down and get away with on appeal is five years, so she banged her gavel. Case closed.
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