President Trump on Friday pardoned Kristian Saucier, a former Navy sailor who went to prison for taking photos inside a nuclear submarine.
In 2009, Saucier, 22 at the time, took six photos on his cell phone inside the USS Alexandria. He was charged with two felonies, to which he pled guilty in 2016 and served a year in prison.
Trump had invoked Saucier’s case during the 2016 presidential campaign, comparing his crime to Democrat opponent Hillary Clinton’s illegal use of a private email server.
“They took the kid who wanted some pictures of the submarine. That’s an old submarine; they’ve got plenty of pictures, if the enemy wants them, they’ve got plenty of them. He wanted to take a couple of pictures. They put him in jail for a year,” Trump stated during a campaign speech on November 4, 2016. “He did nothing by comparison to what she’s done.”
During the second presidential debate on Oct. 9, 2016, Trump also referred to Saucier when he told Clinton, “People have been — their lives have been destroyed for doing one-fifth of what you’ve done.”
Indeed, Saucier told the Washington Examiner his conviction made it harder for him to find work.
“We’re struggling,” Saucier, 31, told the Examiner, which noted he has “frequent calls from credit card debt collectors and an electricity bill payment plan.”
“No one will hire me because I’m a felon… All the skills I worked so hard for in the military are useless,” Saucier added.
Speaking about the possibility of pardoning Saucier, Trump told Sean Hannity in January 2017, “I’m actually looking at it right now. I think it’s very unfair in light of what’s happened with other people.”
The president also indicated in a tweet earlier this year he believed “Crooked Hillary’s” top aide Huma Abedin’s crimes were far greater than Saucier’s.
Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
“Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others.”
Saucier appeared on Infowars with Alex Jones last September to bring attention to his plea for President Trump to issue him a pardon considering Hillary Clinton “gets away with murder.”
“I was unlike, you know Hillary Clinton and them who said, ‘Oh, I take responsibility,’ but then don’t really take responsibility. I went to court and I just took responsibility. I pled guilty. I was willing to take the punishment.
“I took it, and I didn’t cry like Anthony Weiner, you know, when he got sentenced for what he did. I sat there. I took my punishment. I went to prison like a man, and I came out of it and now I want to speak out.”
The president last year issued his first pardon to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was found guilty of criminal contempt for employing hard-line tactics to target illegal immigrants. The former sheriff is currently running for senate in Arizona.
Watch our second interview with Kris Saucier from January 7, 2018 below:
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