The sailor got shafted.
President Trump tweeted Tuesday there’s a double standard in the government’s treatment of Hillary Clinton and her aide Huma Abedin, pointing to Kristian Saucier, a former Navy sailor jailed for taking six photos inside a submarine.
Saucier, 31, was released from prison in September after receiving a one-year sentence for mishandling classified information. With a felony conviction, he now works up to 70 hours a week collecting garbage in Vermont.
“Obviously with his tweet today he still recognizes my case, so hopefully he will do something about it. I think my family and I have been punished enough,” Saucier told the Washington Examiner. “I made an innocent mistake as a kid, it wasn’t planned like Hillary Clinton and them blatantly flouting the law.”
The home where Saucier lives with his wife and two-year-old daughter is in foreclosure and credit card debt collectors call frequently. His cars were repossessed while he was in prison and the family has a payment plan for their electricity bill.
Because he has an other-than-honorable discharge, Saucier doesn’t get veteran benefits, including disability payments for service-related injuries. He wears an ankle monitor until April.
But most frustratingly to Saucier, a felony record makes finding a job difficult.
“We’re struggling,” he said. “No one will hire me because I’m a felon … All the skills I worked so hard for in the military are useless.”
Trump invoked Saucier repeatedly during the presidential campaign and days after taking office told Fox News host Sean Hannity in January he was “looking at” a pardon because “it’s very unfair in light of what’s happened with other people.” But Trump didn’t give a pardon, leaving Saucier to serve his full sentence in prison.
Saucier, who served 11 years in the military, including two tours in the Middle East, at times felt like he had been used as a disposable campaign prop, until Trump’s tweet Tuesday.
The president tweeted: “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.”