This is a follow-up to my Rec List diary from yesterday.
A former IRS consultant was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking former President Donald Trump’s tax returns as well as the filings of thousands of other wealthy people to the news media.
A district court judge on Monday agreed with the Justice Department that Charles Littlejohn, 38, deserved the maximum statutory sentence for what she called “egregious” crimes.
Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden nominee to the bench, focused on Littlejohn's decision to release Trump's filings, which Reyes called "an attack on our constitutional democracy."
“When you target the sitting president of the United States, you’re targeting the office and when you’re targeting the office of the president of the United States, you’re targeting democracy — you’re targeting our constitutional system of government.”
Noting that Trump was under no legal obligation to release his filings and likening the case to the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol, Reyes said: "It cannot be open season on our elected officials — it just can’t."
Some other remarks made by the judge.
But Reyes said Trump and the others have a right to privacy. “We’re told by the press that democracy dies in darkness — it also dies in lawlessness.”
She said the democratic system won’t work unless “every individual elected to office is able to exercise the duties of that office without concern of exposing herself or her family to unlawful conduct or personal harm.”
Reyes also questioned what the leaks accomplished, noting that House Democrats separately released Trump’s returns in 2022 after a long legal fight. And, the judge said, there are already statistics and other publicly available information showing how much wealthy people pay.
“There was nothing noble or moral about the nature of his offense,” said Reyes. “It did not produce a single social good that could not have been — has not been produced in some way by lawful means.”
Read the whole article here.