Trump never tires of claiming that courts in Washington are biased against him as he seeks to discredit any attempt to hold him to account for his frequent challenges to the rule of law.
So will the former president now be gushing with praise for the capital's judicial system after a case went in his favor and contradicted his claims?
It's doubtful.
But on Monday, Charles Littlejohn, 38, was sentenced to five years in prison for stealing and leaking the tax records of Trump and thousands of other wealthy people.
Littlejohn had pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized disclosures of income tax returns after leaking the documents to two news outlets.
Judge Ana Reyes – a Biden appointee — described the crime as an assault on the foundation of America's rule of law and democracy.
"What you did in attacking the sitting president of the United States was an attack on our constitutional democracy," Reyes said. "We're talking about someone who … pulled off the biggest heist in IRS history."
The judge compared Littlejohn's actions to those of the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack, noting, "Your actions were also a threat to our democracy."
"It engenders the same fear that January 6 does," Reyes added.
Prosecutors had argued that a free press is critical to democracy but that stealing and leaking private tax information stripped individuals of important legal protections.
Littlejohn told the court that he acted "out of a sincere misguided belief."
Unlike most modern presidential candidates, Trump refused to show his tax returns to the public in the 2016 or 2020 elections.
Some of Trump's returns were obtained by House Democrats after a long legal battle at the end of 2022 and released – which revealed why he may not have wanted them public.
Six years of returns showed that Trump, who claims he's a multi-billionaire, paid very little tax in the first and last years of his presidency after claiming huge losses in his businesses that reduced his obligations.
