Second hacker pleads guilty over scheme to steal Trump tax returns

A second former Haverford College student has pleaded guilty in connection to a failed attempt to hack President Trump’s tax returns.

Andrew Harris, 23, pleaded guilty Thursday in Philadelphia federal court to a pair of misdemeanor violations related to illegally trying to obtain Mr. Trump’s tax returns in 2016.

Using the computer lab at Haverford College, a private, liberal arts college near Philadelphia, Mr. Harris and another student, Justin Hiemstra, attempted to access the president’s tax returns through the Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) website, according to the plea agreement he signed.

“Hiemstra and Harris created a false FAFSA account under the name of a family member of Donald Trump,” U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain said in court filings. “When they realized that a FSA-ID had already been created for Donald Trump, they attempted to obtain access to the existing account by answering the security questions associated with the account. They did a search in Google for answers to the security questions and then used Trump’s Social Security number to attempt to get the tax records.”

IRS records suggest four unsuccessful attempts were made to access Mr. Trump’s tax returns through the FAFSA website, according to prosecutors, who said that the co-defendants carried out the scheme using the computer lab credentials of other Haverford students.

Both men were charged in July with two counts each of computer hacking: one count of accessing, and aiding and abetting the accessing of a computer without authorization, to obtain information from a protected computer; and one count of attempting to access a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access to obtain information from any department of the United States.

Mr. Hiemstra entered a similar guilty plea last month, and both men are scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 16. They face maximum sentences of two years imprisonment followed by one year of supervised release, in addition to fines of up to $200,000 each.

William Brennan, an attorney for Mr. Harris, told The Washington Times that his client takes the case very seriously and bears no ill will toward Mr. Trump or his family.

“Having said that, it’s important to put this case in perspective,” Mr. Brennan told The Times. “This is not, as some professor has publicly opined, ’akin to Russian hacking.’ It’s a college prank gone awry. Mr. Harris was expelled from school and charged, by the government, with federal criminal offenses. It is my cautiously optimistic hope that the court will credit Mr. Harris’ acceptance of responsibility and guilty plea when imposing sentence.”

The co-defendants carried out the scheme on Nov. 2, 2016, less than a week before Mr. Trump was elected president over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Mr. Trump was the first major presidential candidate in decades to refuse to release his tax returns, and he has continued while in the White House to keep his returns under wrap.

“No matter what you think about the president’s tax returns, clearly this kind of illegal activity cannot be tolerated or condoned,” Mr. McSwain said. “Unauthorized or false attempts to obtain any citizen’s IRS filings are a serious violation of privacy rights and a federal crime, and there’s nothing funny about it. Now this un-funny plot has branded both Harris and his cohort, Hiemstra, with federal criminal convictions that they deserve.”

Mr. Harris was expelled from Haverford in October 2017, according to court documents. Mr. Hiemstra, a Fulbright Scholar, finished his studies but will not graduate until completing a study-abroad program next year, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.