Another case of “the end justifies the means” way of thinking, particularly when “the end” is the defeat of President Donald Trump and his supporters. At least in this case the perpetrator is being punished for breaking the law.

National Review

Former Internal Revenue Service contractor Charles Littlejohn has been sentenced to five years in prison for leaking former president Donald Trump’s tax returns.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, who was appointed by President Biden, issued Littlejohn’s sentence on Monday. He also must pay a $5,000 fine.

“You can be an outstanding person and commit bad acts,” Reyes said. “What you did in targeting the sitting president of the United States was an attack on our constitutional democracy.”

Littlejohn pleaded guilty last year to stealing and leaking thousands of tax returns in 2019 and again in 2020, including former President Donald Trump’s tax documents. In a D.C. federal court in October, Littlejohn admitted that he used the IRS archive to obtain Trump’s and other conservative donors’ tax returns and then gave the documents to the New York Times and ProPublica.

The former Booz Allen Hamilton consultant acted out of “deep, moral belief,” his lawyers said this month, and thought that “the American public had a right to know the President’s tax information.” He also leaked the tax returns of Peter Thiel, Warren Buffett, and Jeff Bezos. Irrespective of Littlejohn’s intentions, Reyes said in October, “people taking the law into their own hands is unacceptable.”