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.
I’m guessing I’m going to have the most hated opinion on this. But fuck that person. I get a lot of people want to celebrate it as “person had to commit a crime so that they could point out crimes being committed by Trump” but ultimately this wrecks public trust of an institution, of which the IRS doesn’t exactly enjoy a lot of it to begin with. And if we don’t have trust in our government, it’s doesn’t matter, we’re fuck Trump won.
This whole thing, literally proves the argument of “weaponizing Government”. This person walked into the IRS, had an agenda, and was absolutely going to abuse their position to make a point that they had zero legal right to make. Did anyone directly tell them to do the thing? No. Was there a lot of talking heads that might have colored this person’s opinion about Trump? You better believe it. So no one “directly” weaponized this person, but someone would be hard pressed to convince me it wasn’t indirect. Which brings up the question of, are we a nation of laws or vendettas? Do we settle our beef in court without blood or are we just finding out who can sneak the most without getting noticed?
I get it, I don’t like Trump either, BUT NOT LIKE THIS. This is too far. This person is no hero, they violated the law and even worse abused public trust. If we don’t have public trust, if we’re just celebrating when someone takes the piss on an oath to obey the law (which IRS employees take), then we have nothing defensible. We’re literally talking about the shit that we’re going after Trump for, violations of his oath to defend the Constitution and uphold the law.
If we’re violating laws because “trust me bro, it’ll be worth it” then the laws mean nothing. I get it, too long have we had our faith in this system forsake us. Too many rich assholes bend the law to their whim to escape actual persecution, so “it’s okay to rob from the rich to give to the poor every once and awhile”. But that’s actually not how we solve things, that’s just gasoline to make things even worse.
Acting above the law doesn’t always mean, you get away with it. Acting above the law means, that you don’t view the law as always being a guiding principal. That sometimes, somethings require operating outside of the law. No matter the consequences. That the ends justify the means. And if we aren’t able to hold enough faith to believe that the law will eventually ring out and that we can eventually find enough justice in this world…
Hang it up, we’re done here. Because that’s all that’s holding any democracy together. Faith, blind faith, sometimes dumb faith that we’re all going to do the thing we promised to do, and that we’re all going to come together when that’s violated. It’s easy and quick to settle a grudge with fists but a lasting peace and understanding comes from settling it with our minds and voices. Breaking laws to expose Trump’s crimes, that’s not a victory for democracy, that’s just a victory for people who don’t like Trump.
You are looking at this completely backwards. Civil disobedience is absolutely necessary to help create just laws. Do not confuse civil disobedience and vigilantism.
This wasn’t an unjust law though. No one wants the IRS publicizing their tax return details. It happened to a guy you don’t like, but that doesn’t make the action a good thing.
The injustice I see this as highlighting is not the existence of a law preventing the disclosure of confidential tax information, but the lack of a law requiring the President to disclose their tax information.
Presidents releasing their tax returns has been a historical precedent, but has not been codified into law. Trump promised to release his tax returns but then refused.
Shockingly, history shows us that when the people entrusted with upholding and enforcing the law themselves become lawless, you generally end up with society “taking matters into their own hands.”
Considering elected officials and unelected officials blatantly getting away with wrongdoing has been happening since before I was born and I am officially a fucking old person, the idea that this is just about Trump and not about a legal system that is so broken that it has turned into the early Legalism phase of Fascism just reeks of missing the point, the historical examples, and how long this has been happening.
We let war criminals off the hook less than twenty years ago, and that’s not even the half of it, going all the way back to Nixon, at the very least.
It’s not that you’re wrong, it’s that the chance to fix things “within the system” flew the coop decades ago. Clarence Thomas and Gini Thomas are proof enough alone of that, let alone the three Justices who served on the legal team that helped get George W. Bush (cough War Criminal cough) get elected who all somehow ended up on the Supreme Court.
I will say, the parts that do have to do with Trump are pretty damning, though, too. Merrick Garland’s hand was practically forced to bring charges against Trump. It literally took the classified documents case and Trump being so belligerently stupid with classified information that they could no longer look the other way. Why did he wait so long? To “not look political?” All it did was make him look political. A guy hiding behind politics so he wouldn’t have to hold the political hot potato of indicting a former President. Ended up having to anyway because this guy in particular is so criminally insane.
I don’t disagree with the rest of your comment. But I see the younger generation of our time and I have hope. Maybe foolish hope. Myself being part of the fucking old person crew. I don’t think we’re yet too far gone, but my goodness you’re right, if it hasn’t flown the coop yet, it’s already got it’s boarding pass.
I have a lot of hope in the youth as well! However, I try not to let that cloud me to the reality of a government that was never really created to represent all its citizens. America has had its good times, and it has had its time when its been a leader, hell it’s still a leader in many ways, but so much of the power is so entrenched, I also worry for the youth’s future.
I don’t think your opinion is really unpopular per se, as much as many of us wonder if it’s even possible anymore. God, if only we could still live in that world! If I could have faith that the people around me were participating in the systems therein in good faith, I wouldn’t feel the way I do about the whole situation.
Cheers, mate. Thanks, by the way, for being willing to hear my perspective. It’s nice when folks can find their common ground.
Your legal system exists to protect itself and the ruling class, it is not just, it is indefensible.
This person sacrificed themselves to bring to light one small part of the injustices you allow to perpetuate. They’re a hero, you’re a problem.
Well the obvious question. What system would you have it replaced with?
And this person has now also made it where everyone will ask, “if this person existed in the IRS, how do we know there are not more?” This is how distrust gets sown. This is how the IRS loses more funding. This is exactly how “ruling class” gets even less oversight. This is how these people, you want to go after, get away with it. This person didn’t solve anything, they made it worse.
That person’s is absolutely heading to jail on the 29th. Where’s Trump at the moment? You think you got some sort of win?
They are going to jail and will likely never have the right to vote ever again in their life. I can still vote for a different world than the one we currently live in.
So if you think this “solved” something, then you didn’t understand the problem. I’m just going to tell you, this kind of tit for tat stuff. We won’t survive it. Every hero ultimately turns into a Robespierre. We don’t solve this with a single person, we solve it together, otherwise we don’t solve it period.
The kind of people who meaningfully distrust the IRS aren’t interested in facts. The kind of people who want to defund the IRS also have a tenuous connection to truth, justice, and good ideas.
In general I agree that we shouldn’t willy-nilly break the laws. But specific beats general in my mind. I don’t think the costs of this will be very high.
Also like how do you feel about jury nullification?
You know what? I’ll give you that. I’m hopeful enough this blows over without much ado. But IDK, I’ve seen smaller mole hills turn mountains.
The thing is, it isn’t binary. It’s a range of folks. And I would rather us not lose ranks. It’s easier to indicate trust in something if there’s not an actual reason to distrust.
Aw man! Complicated. Because you can really start going all kinds of dark places if you start thinking a Judge willingly could hand out bad instructions to the jury. A not guilty is a lot harder to have an appellate review and if you try to fix it that way, do you want to have not guilty become easier to appeal?
Like we could have a big old day about that topic. Wooo. That’s a can and it is marked “Oops all worms”.
Replace it with one where people have a say and not a ruling class?
There’s enough anarchist/communist/leftist literature out there discussing these issues, they’re not new.
And the idea that you can vote your way out of this mess is adorable, naive, but adorable.
You want everyone to vote on every issue? Because outside of that, we’ve already got that system you talk about.
And those systems have flaws in them as well. It’s not like rich and powerful means “Oh no, I cannot learn to exploit a new system!”
See there’s not an “out”, that’s where you’ve got it wrong. There’s never a point where people stop pushing back on rich and powerful. That’s literally the human condition, it’s forever, always, until the heat death of the universe, an uphill. There is no top of the hill. There is no “out”. Democracy is not a spectator sport, it requires all of us to continually and forever until the last of us is gone, fight the indoctrination with education, fight the power grabs with justice, and fight greed with humility.
At no point do we make progress by breaking laws and further showing how irrelevant that sheet of paper we call the Constitution is and rewriting it to be communist or foregoing it to be anarchist do not make it where suddenly human proclivities cease existing. You cannot do off with the evil side of human nature by adopting some magical means to live one’s life and govern one’s society. It is only with an enteral effort or the cessation of humanity itself that it can placed in check.
No you have all of this completely wrong. There is never “out”.
I want everyone to have the ability to vote on every issue if they want too.
You cannot have rich and powerful people under such a system because the means for them to posses such status do not exist.
There is zero biological imperative that rich and powerful people must exist, that’s purely a social construct. Humans are inherently cooperative.
And yes at every point you make progress by breaking laws. What would LGBT rights look like without the Stonewall riots? What would worker rights look like without anarchists kidnapping CEOs and fighting pinkertons, what would black rights look like without a civil war and groups like the black panthers violence.
Our world got to where it is through shedding the blood of tyrants, not asking them nicely.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Disinformation.
There is a finite set of things and a means to obtain significant portions of those finite things.
Humans are complex.
Let me ask you, all that blood shed previously. Did it work? Are we winning right now? You mentioned the US Civil War, ask yourself, did the slaves actually get free? Did the blacks actually get rights? Did the people who started the war face justice?
Also, all that those moments in history where there was shedding of blood. You do understand, if we had that today, you and I are pretty much assured to not make it. You do understand that? If we went to bloodshed, a lot of the people on this forum are highly likely the be part of the dead. You know in the Declaration of Independence there’s a line:
And reason why is because they knew, that overthrowing the government means most people die and the rich and power continue on. You do kind of notice how a lot of the folks who signed that document were also very rich and very powerful people and very not dead at the end of the Revolutionary war?
Which is why I’m curious about you quoting Thomas Jefferson in his letter to John Adam’s son-in-law. For me a real quote is:
Yes, we are undeniably slightly better off than at any other period. Go ask how many women, queers, or PoC would rather go back to the '50s.
Can you not even recognize such a simple reality?
You seem very well spoken but clearly convicted in seeing the shining and just world you may have thought you were building towards go dark and twisted the way the History books noted should be history.
That’s a presumption on my part of course and I’ll never truly know, but it rings right.
But this is a topic where your enthusiasm for the recovery of a dream that never was is making you say some seriously ignorant takes, in the dehumanize others for my point sort of way.
There is a small cadre of lovely good old people who don’t realize the realities being lived in those they have spent their lives seeing as allies–or at least being non-antagonistic towards.
A terrifying thing to see people who were there or learned first hand from those who were living through the bloody acquisition of the rights of marginalized group after marginalized group.
And how even those rights that were bled for are being eroded, within the same lifetime.
If they still can recognize such a simple reality, that recognition comes with a price that is often decided as not worth paying for those people, for whatever reasons they tell themselves.
I fear you may have with all the best intentions, gelled there as one of those people.
But my God. I have never in my life of being of color and all of the hardships and obstacles that’s brought the thought:
“Hmmm, did my ancestors really get freedom? Was the Civil War worth it, for our country’s Unity? Wouldn’t it be better to still remain chattel while trying to think of how to solve this all amicably”.
The ignorance is so staggering I can’t manage to be offended.
Let me quote you something:
— Judge Learned Hand (1944)
The fight of a right is indeed one thing, but it does not win the hearts of people. An injustice revealed at a cost of another injustice does not win the hearts of people. The US Civil War won us the 13th amendment but it did not win the hearts of the people. Law is a piece of paper and means only that which people extend to it and no more. Law protects the people to the extent that law is enforced by the people and no less.
Out of the Civil War came share cropping, Jim Crow laws, and disenfranchisement of those who were formerly enslaved. The evil didn’t abate, it evolved. It was not the blood shed there that gave salvation, it was the blood there that began the march.
Absolutely not, but at the same time it’s foolish to think it was settled. And that’s the point I am making, no win is absolute, but every loss is an erosion. This “win” that the other person believes it to be is not such. It is a win if you are of the mindset that the crimes or Trump require a person who took an oath to uphold the law in bad faith was justified.
In your life you’ve likely wanted this world to be different, to be equal. But that can only be found not by law onto others but by mindset by others. And if law requires equality and the minds of people have not change, no sheet of paper can protect us unless we have faith in that sheet of paper. No document can prevent evil unless we maintain faith in the people who have sworn an oath to do such.
Is that not the problem we see? People who wear uniforms who swear to serve and protect in constant violation of that? People who have taken oath to hold those in violation of that promise who fail to uphold their end of the bargain?
I would say, people taken it upon themselves to believe that ends justify the means is the root of the problem, not the solution. That is why I ask do we believe we got the win in the Civil War? With the 19th Amendment? And the answer is what I’ve said to the other person.
The events I speak about are not a conclusion of things, but the start of things. They are not wins, they events that direct us. Change us and show our resolve to continue. Evil sinks back because they believe we are resolute and when we show that we are not, then our struggle becomes more difficult.
And to quote:
— Angela Davis (Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Closures and Continuities)
In short, the idea that “freedom” continues with the shedding of blood is incorrect or in the best of light, short sighted. Freedom is maintained in the minds and hearts of the people and when ephemeral wins come at the cost of holding no faith to an oath to protect and uphold the law. Then it is no real win, it is an erosion. There are too many examples of how bad faith poisoned the US in the Reconstruction Era that followed the US Civil War. Of how bad faith fueled hate groups to win the hearts and minds of the people at that time.
Perhaps that won’t be the case with this revelation. I honestly hope you all are correct and I am incorrect, to me that would be best for me to be incorrect on this event. I would want nothing more. But any weakness in our resolve to be a nation of laws is a strength to authoritarianism. Any action of bad faith courts more of the like and makes repulsion that more difficult.
Yes, you’ve identified the real crux of the issue. All Americans have great trust and respect for the IRS, and Mr Littlejohn’s actions might erode some fraction of some fraction of that undeserved trust and respect. Oh, the humanity.
Nah, this is not going to get through with people.