Photo credit: Jonathan Ernst/ Gerald Herbert

A Louisiana private investigator has pleaded guilty Monday to misusing President Trump's social security number in multiple attempts to attain the president's federal tax return information during the election.

The accused is Jordan Hamlett, 32, and he faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty in federal court Monday. The authorities say Hamlett made repeated attempts to gain access to Trump's tax information through a U.S. Department of Education financial aid website.

Trump refused to release his federal tax returns defying a tradition honored by previous presidents. Court documents reveal Hamlett used Trump's social security number and other personal information to open an application for federal student aid on September 13, 2016.

Hamlett got so far as to obtain a username and password and then tried to use an Internal Revenue Service data retrieval tool to obtain Trump's tax information. "The defendant made six separate attempts to obtain the federal tax information from IRS servers, but he was unsuccessful," according to court documents.

Hamlett is a Lafayette resident and was indicted in November 2016, his trial was set to begin this week but the judge presiding over the case fell ill and died. The new judge in the case has yet to schedule Hamlett's sentencing hearing.

His attorney, Michael Fiser, made a statement indicating his client "still has a long road ahead." Fiser also said, "We felt like, under the circumstances, it was time to accept full responsibility and move forward to get closure."

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Source: http://www.ksla.com/story/37040041/louisiana-man-admits-misusing-trumps-social-security-number