RSS Feed

BATON ROUGE (AP) — A Louisiana private investigator pleaded guilty on Monday to misusing Donald Trump’s Social Security number in repeated attempts to access the president’s federal tax information before his election last year.
Jordan Hamlett, 32, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine following his guilty plea in federal court.
Authorities have said Hamlett failed in his attempts to get Trump’s tax information through a U.S. Department of Education financial aid website.
Trump has refused to release his tax returns, bucking an American tradition honored by every president since Jimmy Carter.
A court document accompanying Hamlett’s plea agreement says he used Trump’s Social Security number and other personal information to open an online application for federal student aid on Sept. 13, 2016. After obtaining a username and password, he tried to use an Internal Revenue Service data retrieval tool to obtain Trump’s tax information, the document says.
“The defendant made six separate attempts to obtain the federal tax information from IRS servers, but he was unsuccessful,” says the document. It doesn’t specify how much of Trump’s tax information could have been retrieved with the online tool.
Hamlett, a Lafayette resident, was indicted in November 2016. His trial had been scheduled to start this week, but the judge originally assigned to the case died on Saturday after a brief illness. U.S. District Court Judge John deGravelles, who inherited the case, didn’t immediately schedule Hamlett’s sentencing hearing.
Defense attorney Michael Fiser had argued Hamlett didn’t have any “intent to deceive” and simply tried “out of sheer curiosity” to discover whether Trump’s tax information could be accessed through the government website.
After Hamlett’s guilty plea, Fiser said his client “still has a long road ahead” as he awaits sentencing.
“We felt like, under the circumstances, it was time to accept full responsibility and move forward to get closure,” Fiser said.
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.
Treasury Department Special Agent Samuel Johnson testified in March that Hamlett immediately took credit for his “genius idea” to seek Trump’s tax returns from the financial aid website.
Johnson noted that an internet hacking group calling itself Anonymous had targeted Trump.
“At that time, Anonymous had been established as people that have released some of President Trump’s personal identifying information and things of that nature,” Johnson testified.
Federal prosecutors had asked Judge James Brady to bar Hamlett’s lawyer from presenting a trial defense that that he was acting as a benevolent “white hat” hacker. Brady, a senior federal judge who died Saturday at a Baton Rouge hospital, ruled last month that Hamlett couldn’t testify that he had a “good purpose” in attempting to test security flaws in the 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.
Fiser said Hamlett liked to test security systems for weaknesses in his spare time and would notify system administrators if he found a system vulnerable to a security breach. Hamlett once discovered a security flaw that allowed for public access to the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office’s “raw” reports on open investigations and exposed personal information about police officers.
“Hamlett tipped the sheriff’s office to the flaw and was met with thanks and appreciation, not an arrest,” his attorney wrote in a recent court filing.
After his indictment, Hamlett was arrested again in August for allegedly violating conditions of his pretrial release. Prosecutors said he committed “numerous violations,” including hacking into email and social media accounts of a man at the request of the man’s wife.

St. Mary Parish Sheriff Mark Hebert reported the following arrests:
Brandi Lacoste, 34, of 501 Saint Peter St., Patterson, was arrested Monday at 3:21 p.m. on a warrant for failure to appear on the charges of possession of hydrocodone, failure to signal and operating a vehicle with a suspended driver’s license.
A deputy located Lacoste at her residence on the warrant and transported her to the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center for booking. Bail is set at $15,000.
Ashley Jones, 32, of 417 Bowman St., Morgan City, was arrested Monday at 6:42 p.m. on charges of turning movements and required signals violation, child passenger restraint system required and possession of Schedule IV Xanax.
Jina Mingo, 52, of 409 Bowman St., Morgan City, was arrested Monday at 6:42 p.m. on charges of resisting an officer giving false information and on a warrant for failure to appear on the charge of theft.
Narcotics detectives conducted a traffic stop near the intersection of Fifth and Everett Streets in Morgan City after observing the driver fail to signal a turn. Detectives identified the driver as Jones and a passenger as Mingo. They also observed a toddler in the vehicle who was not in a child safety seat. While speaking with Jones, detectives observed a pill bottle in her purse and found that it contained a Xanax pill. Jones was unable to provide a prescription for the drug. Mingo attempted to give detectives false information about her identity. After positively identifying Mingo, detectives located the active warrant for her arrest. Jones and Mingo were transported to the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center for booking. No bail is set.
Sharon Gauthier, 57, of 914 Main St. #1403, Franklin, was arrested Tuesday at 7:15 p.m. on a warrant for failure to appear on the charges of resisting an officer and disturbing the peace offensive language. During booking at the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center, a correctional deputy located the active warrant for Gauthier’s arrest. Gauthier was released on a $1,500 bond.
Franklin Police Department reported the following arrests:
Myrtle Naquin, 55, of La. 87, Franklin, was arrested Monday at 1:12 p.m. on the charge of simple burglary.
Naquin was booked, processed, and held with no bond set at the time of press release.
Joseph Demarco, 52, of Chris Lane, Franklin, was arrested Monday at 1:58 p.m. on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of Schedule II narcotics methamphetamine and possession of Schedule II narcotics vyvanse.
Demarco was booked, processed, and held with no bond set at the time of press release.

A 58-year-old Berwick man was charged Friday with DWI third offense, according to Berwick police.

—Adrian Angeron, 58, of Parro Lane in Berwick, was arrested at 2:24 a.m. Friday on charges of DWI third offense-refusal, speeding 57 mph in a 45 mph zone, driving under suspension and no proof of insurance. No bail was set yet.

Berwick Police Chief James Richard reported the following arrest:

—Eddie Gray, 25, of Utah Street in Berwick, was arrested at 5 p.m. Saturday on charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and careless operation with a crash. Gray posted $2,750 bail.

Morgan City Police Chief James Blair reported the following arrests:

—Ronald Picou, 52, of Karen Drive in Morgan City, was arrested at 9:55 a.m. Saturday on a warrant charging him with failure to appear to pay a fine.

Picou was located in the area of Sixth and Louisa streets and it was determined that Picou had a city court warrant for his arrest. Picou was jailed.

—Frank D. Peavy, 45, of First Street in Morgan City, was arrested at 12:46 a.m. Saturday on charges of disturbing the peace, criminal damage to property and remaining after being forbidden.

Officers responded to a home on Louisa Street in regard to a disturbance with an individual that had previously been told not to return to the home. Officers located the individual, Peavy, who was yelling and using profanities outside of the home, Blair said. Peavy had also damaged a door inside the home, Blair said. Peavy was jailed.

—Chris J. Boudreaux, 50, of McDermott Drive in Morgan City, was arrested at 5:08 p.m. Saturday on a warrant charging him with contempt of court. Boudreaux was located at his home, arrested and jailed.

—Danzell A. Washington, 26, of Frederick Drive in Thibodaux, was arrested at 4:32 a.m. Sunday on charges of driving under suspension, switched license plate and no insurance.

A patrol officer in the area of La. 182 and Martin Luther King Boulevard observed a vehicle traveling at a rate higher than the posted speed. A traffic stop was conducted and the driver, Washington, had a suspended driver’s license, Blair said.

There was also no insurance on the vehicle and the license plate had been switched, Blair said. Washington was jailed.

—Lantrell Ayers, 26, of Mallard Street in Morgan City, was arrested at 9:53 a.m. Sunday on a warrant charging him with theft less than $1,000, remaining after being forbidden and no driver’s license.

A patrol officer in the area of Mallard Street observed a vehicle driven by Ayers. The officer, knowing of an active warrant on Ayers, conducted a traffic stop, Blair said. The warrant stems from a Dec. 1 incident where Ayers allegedly took an item from a business without paying.

Ayers also did not have a valid driver’s license and had been previously barred from all Morgan City Housing Authority Property, Blair said. Ayers was jailed.

—Drake Wood, 17, of Parro Street in Berwick, was arrested at 12:17 a.m. Friday on charges of possession of marijuana, illegal use of a controlled dangerous substance in the presence of juveniles and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Patrol officers observed a vehicle being operated in an erratic manner in the area of Roderick Street. A stop was initiated, and Wood was identified as an occupant of the vehicle.

Wood was in possession of suspected marijuana and drug paraphernalia, Blair said. There were also two juveniles in the vehicle. Wood was jailed.

St. Mary Parish Sheriff Mark Hebert reported that deputies responded to 170 complaints in the parish and reported the following arrests relating to east St. Mary Parish:

—Frank Rock Jr., 30, of Patterson, was arrested at 8:28 a.m. Thursday on charges of remaining where forbidden and possession of marijuana.

A deputy responding to a complaint of trespassing in the Patterson area located Rock inside a home that he had previously been told to vacate, Blair said. The deputy also located marijuana inside the home. Rock was jailed with bail set at $2,500.

—Jonathan Brown Sr., 58, of Clarke Road in Bayou Vista, was arrested at 2:33 p.m. Sunday on a warrant for failure to appear on charges of aggravated assault with a firearm and disturbing the peace by using offensive language.

During booking at the parish jail, a correctional deputy located the active warrant for Brown’s arrest. No bail is set.

Patterson Police Chief Patrick LaSalle reported no arrests.