The Center for Terrorism Law at San Antonio's St. Mary's University is urging President Trump to pardon a sailor who is serving a prison sentence for taking a selfie on board a nuclear submarine, claiming he is being signaled out for punishment so federal officials can demonstrate their commitment to protecting national security after fumbling the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Director Jeffrey Addicott admits Chris Saucier took the photograph on board the nuclear sub, which is considered a classified area, and says it was wrong for him to do so.
But he says other sailors who did the same thing were punished with a reprimand and reduction in rank, while Saucier was prosecuted in federal court for violating national security laws, and sentenced to one year in prison.
The difference--Addicott, who is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and former counsel for the Army Special Forces argues, is that the other sailors took the pictures several years ago, while Saucier's case came up at the height of the controversy over then Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server, and allegations that the server may have made national security information available to hackers.
"Chris's came came to light at the same time the FBI and the Justice Department were being criticized for not taking classified information seriously," Addicott said.
He says it is clearly unfair for a sailor to be used as political cover for the Justice Department's shortcomings."They selected him to make an example out of him to show they were serious about protecting classified information due to the criticism they were receiving for doing nothing about Hillary Clinton," he said.
Addicott says formal requests for clemency and a full pardon are being submitted to the White House. Clemency would allow Saucier to get out of prison, while a full pardon would remove the conviction, and the less than honorable discharge, from Saucier's record and would conceivably allow him to rejoin the Navy.
Addicott says Saucier didn't provide the photographs to anybody else who could have provided them to an enemy power, he says the photos 'never left his phone.'
He says President Trump has indicated that he would be willing to pardon Saucier.
"President Trump mentioned this case specifically on the campaign trail in 2016 as a sign of great injustice and hypocrisy," he said.
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