Man Tries to Hack Trump’s Taxes, Gets Hit With a Massive Reality Check

A Louisiana man pleaded guilty Monday to using then-candidate Donald Trump’s social security number to try and gain access to his tax returns prior to the 2016 presidential election.

Thirty-two-year-old Jordan Hamlett could face up to five years in prison for his crime, as well as a fine of $250,000, The Associated Press reported.

Hamlett, who used to to work as a private investigator, tried to use Trump’s social security number and other personal information to apply for federal student aid on the Department of Education’s website in September 2016.

After receiving a username and password, his plan was to use an IRS data retrieval tool to access Trump’s tax information.

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“The defendant made six separate attempts to obtain the federal tax information from IRS servers, but he was unsuccessful,” a court document read.

Trump’s tax returns became a controversial issue during the election, as presidential candidates, with the exception of Trump, usually release their returns.

Investigators took the case seriously at the time, as they were worried that if Trump’s tax information was released without his consent, it might influence the outcome of the election.

“There was (sic) thoughts this could be something that would affect the election if the information had been received,” Special Agent Samuel Johnson of the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration testified earlier this year, according to The Daily Beast.

Johnson said an undercover agent met with Hamlett in a Baton Rouge hotel under the guise of wanting to hire him. Investigators then confronted him, and he quickly and proudly fessed up.

The investigators also asked Hamlett if he knew anything about the internet hacking group known as “Anonymous,” which had previously tried targeted Trump.

“At the time Anonymous had been established as people that have released some of President Trump’s personal identifying information and things of that nature,” Johnson said.

“At the time it was believed that with the information that was used to attempt to obtain the tax returns, there was a possibility that somebody could figure out a way to get the tax returns out of the database and release them, sell them, whatever they were going to do.”

A lawyer for Hamlett, who was indicted in November 2016, has claimed that his client was not acting out of an “intent to deceive.” Rather, it was “out of sheer curiosity” that he tried to see if he could access Trump’ tax information.

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The defense attorney, Michael Fiser, has also tried to argue that Hamlett tried to access Trump’s tax returns in an attempt to test the security of the Education Department’s website.

“Fiser said Hamlett had tried to call and notify the IRS about the flaws last September, on the same day he tried to electronically access Trump’s tax records,” the AP reported.

Despite Hamlett’s plea agreement, he “still has a long road ahead” as he waits to hear his sentence, according to Fiser.

“We felt like, under the circumstances, it was time to accept full responsibility and move forward to get closure,” he said.

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