Sailor Guilty of Spy Charge Cites Clinton Emails

Kristian Saucier asks for leniency over classified sub photos
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 16, 2016 1:53 AM CDT
Sailor Guilty of Spy Charge Cites Clinton Emails
An unclassified photo of the USS Alexandria.   (US Navy/Wikimedia Commons)

A sailor who photographed classified areas inside a nuclear sub finds it deeply unfair that he's probably on his way to prison while Hillary Clinton might be on her way to the White House. Petty Officer 1st Class Kristian Saucier, 29, pleaded guilty in May this year to retaining national defense information without permission in 2009, Politico reports. He could get up to 78 months in prison when he's sentenced on Friday, but in a court filing, his lawyer argues that probation would be more appropriate because he possessed just six classified photos from the USS Alexandria—and Hillary Clinton wasn't punished for having 110 emails on her private server that contained information considered classified.

"It will be unjust and unfair for Mr. Saucier to receive any sentence other than probation for a crime those more powerful than him will likely avoid," attorney Derrick Hogan says in the filing, noting that Saucier didn't pass the photos to any unauthorized recipient, but took them out of a "misguided desire" to someday show his children what he did in the Navy. The Hill notes that the citing of the Clinton case will give ammunition to critics who say not indicting Clinton set a "dangerous precedent." Hogan, however, also cites the cases of two other sailors on the Alexandria who were found to have taken photos in classified areas. One was docked $560 in pay and bumped down a rank, while the other was docked $560 without having his rank reduced. (More Hillary Clinton stories.)

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