(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump pardoned a former Navy sailor who served a year in prison for taking sensitive pictures of the reactor inside a nuclear submarine, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Friday.
Trump repeatedly invoked the sailor, Kristian Saucier, during his presidential campaign after he was imprisoned for taking the pictures, saying Saucier's life was “ruined” though he did “nothing” compared to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
“It's an old submarine, believe me, they have pictures of that submarine that nobody knows about, probably, right?” Trump said in New Hampshire just four days before he was elected. “They put him in jail. And you see what she does and she's allowed to run for president. Folks do you know what it tells you? The system is rigged, and I've been saying that for a long time.”
Clinton used her personal email account while secretary of state for communications that included classified material. Saucier's attorneys argued that he shouldn't go to prison for his offense because the FBI decided not to charge Clinton for mishandling classified information. Saucier's trial judge rejected the argument.
Saucier's attorney met with Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in January 2017 and requested a pardon for the sailor, according to Fox News.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Washington at jepstein32@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Mike Dorning
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