A Louisiana private investigator pleaded guilty today to misusing President Donald Trump’s Social Security number in repeated attempts to access the candidate’s federal tax information during the presidential campaign.
Jordan Hamlett, 32, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine after entering his guilty plea in federal court.
Authorities have said Hamlett failed in his attempts to get Trump’s tax returns through a U.S. Department of Education financial aid website.
The Lafayette resident was indicted in November 2016 and had been scheduled to start this week. But Senior Federal Judge James Brady, who was originally assigned to the case, died on Saturday after a brief illness. U.S. District Court Judge John deGravelles has not yet scheduled Hamlett’s sentencing hearing.
Federal agents confronted Hamlett two weeks before last November’s election and questioned him in a Baton Rouge hotel lobby. At the time, the agents didn’t know if Hamlett had been successful, and they feared a public release of Trump’s tax returns could influence the election, according to a transcript of court testimony earlier this year.
