ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A former health care worker who illegally accessed Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s medical records before she died was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison.

Trent Russell, 34, of Bellevue, Nebraska, who worked at the time as a transplant coordinator for the Washington Regional Transplant Community and had access to hospital records from across the region, was convicted earlier this year of illegally accessing to health care records and destroy or alter records in a jury trial.

He was also accused of posting that information online in 2019, at a time when public speculation about Ginsburg’s health and her ability to serve as a justice was a topic of public debate. Prosecutors said he posted the information along with a false claim that Ginsburg had already died. But the jury acquitted Russell on that charge.

Ginsburg served on the court until her death in 2020.

Prosecutors said Russell disclosed medical records on forums that trafficked in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, including conspiracy theories that Ginsburg was dead, but Russell’s motivations for his actions were unclear. In fact, Russell himself never admitted to accessing the records, and at one point suggested that perhaps his cat was walking across the keyboard in a way that mistakenly invoked Ginsburg’s data.

Russell’s excuses and refusal to accept responsibility drew harsh criticism from prosecutors, who sought a 30-month sentence.

“He offered completely implausible excuses with a straight face,” prosecutor Zoe Bedell said.

Russell’s attorney, Charles Burnham, requested a sentence of probation or home detention. He cited Russell’s work saving lives as a transplant coordinator and his military history, which included a deployment to Afghanistan, as mitigating factors.

“Mr. Russell has lived a quietly heroic life,” Burnham wrote in court documents. She attributed the criminal behavior to “being stupid.”

The 24-month sentence from U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, who called his crime “truly despicable conduct.”

“It’s made it extremely difficult to understand what motivated him,” Nachmanoff said. He said Russell made things worse by lying to investigators and testifying as a witness.

“You chose to blame your cat,” Nachmanoff said.

Court records in the case are carefully redacted to eliminate any references to Ginsburg, but during the trial and at Thursday’s sentencing hearing, all sides openly acknowledged that Ginsburg was a victim of the violation of privacy.

In fact, his status as a public figure sparked debate about the seriousness of Russell’s crime. Prosecutors said her high public profile, plus her age and illness, made her a particularly vulnerable victim.

“He went with the Supreme Court justice who was elderly, who was sick, and whose illness was a public concern,” Bedell argued.

Russell’s lawyer, on the other hand, argued that Ginsburg’s high position and the power that comes with it is the opposite of vulnerability.

Nachmanoff, in handing down his sentence, said he took into account the fact that Russell has an ailing stepfather who may need care. The judge noted “with some irony” that the details of the stepfather’s health problems are under secrecy.

“Why? Because it is sensitive health information, a benefit you did not provide to Justice Ginsburg,” he said.

Russell and his attorney declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing on whether they plan to appeal.