Yes, He Should Go to Jail

But can we also give Charles Littlejohn the Presidential Medal of Freedom?

He was just sentenced to 5 years in jail for leaking the tax returns of multiple rich bastards, including those of Donald Trump and Jeff "Batboy" Bezos.

A former government contractor who leaked a slew of confidential tax records filed by the wealthiest Americans, including those of President Donald Trump, was sentenced Monday to the maximum of five years in prison in what a federal judge called “the biggest heist in IRS history.”

Charles Littlejohn pleaded guilty last year to one count of unauthorized disclosure of income tax returns. Littlejohn, 38, admitted that he leaked Trump’s confidential tax information to the New York Times in 2019 and then replicated his work the next year, filtering the tax returns and financial data of thousands of wealthy Americans to ProPublica. The news organizations published reports showing how Trump and the richest Americans for years paid little or no federal taxes.

U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes said Littlejohn deserved the maximum sentence she could impose, because he had targeted a sitting president and thousands of others. Prosecutors said Littlejohn had disclosed the tax returns of about 7,600 individuals and 600 entities.

I appreciate what he did, and it was a positive thing, but the IRS data is kept confidential for a reason, so I approve of the prison sentence, though I do think that the sentence was a bit harsh.

………

“A free press and public engagement with the media are critical to any healthy democracy, but stealing and leaking private, personal tax information strips individuals of the legal protection of their most sensitive data,” [prosecutor Jonathan] Jacobson and prosecutor Jennifer Clarke wrote. “Everyone is entitled to equal protection under the law.”

I agree.  I would also note that I think that as a matter of course, some tax returns should be public under the law, including corporations, LLCs, partnerships, federal elected officials and cabinet members, and people above a certain income threshold (not sure of the number).

But until the law changes, the records should be protected, and those who break the current law should be prosecuted.

Still, we can give him a medal too.