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.

  • stalfoss@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Ok but you could also see how much they are paying other people which I feel like would even things out.

    “We see you currently make 50k, so we’re gonna offer you 60k”

    “I see you are paying everyone else 80k for the same job, so I won’t take any less”

    • Copernican@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      That’s just going to drive down labor. And some titles have pay ranges of line 75k to 100k based on experience. And the employee is at a disadvantage since they don’t have the list of all employees to do the research themselves.