The Justice Department is processing a pardon application from former Navy sailor Kristian Saucier after denying him a waiver to apply for a pardon last year.
President Trump repeatedly invoked Saucier during the 2016 campaign after he was sentenced to one year in prison for taking pictures inside a nuclear submarine, arguing Saucier was “ruined” for doing “nothing” compared to Hillary Clinton.
The photos Saucier, now 31, took inside the sub were deemed “confidential,” meaning the lowest level of classification, even though some depicted the vessel’s nuclear reactor. Clinton, by contrast, sent and received more highly classified information on a private and insecure email server.
People convicted of federal crimes generally have to wait five years after being sentenced before they can apply for a pardon, and a waiver request from Saucier was denied in May, even though Trump told Fox News days after taking office in January 2017 that he was considering a pardon.
In its waiver-denial letter to Saucier’s then-attorney Jeffrey Addicott, the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney wrote on May 30: “Upon careful review of the information you submitted, we have concluded that it would not be appropriate to grant a waiver of the waiting period in Mr. Saucier’s case to permit him to apply for a pardon at this time.”
In late February, the Justice Department sent another letter, saying Saucier’s pardon application is now being processed. “We will now be processing the application for presidential pardon of your client, Kristian Saucier,” the Office of the Pardon Attorney wrote to Addicott, who forwarded the letter to Saucier’s current attorney, Ronald Daigle.
The new letter, dated Feb. 20, requests detailed information about Saucier’s criminal, employment, and medical history, in addition to information about his current civic engagement. The questions focus on specific details about Saucier’s life.
Daigle said Saucier’s legal team submitted no additional filings to the Justice Department between the May denial and the February notice that the pardon application would be processed.
“I can confirm there is a pending case open. We have no further comment,” said Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Navas Oxman.
Spokespeople for the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
“We are very excited about this because the DOJ had dashed our hopes of getting a pardon when our waiver and pardon were denied,” Daigle told the Washington Examiner.
“We have renewed hopes that our president is going to get the opportunity to see our request and hopefully give my client his future back,” Daigle said. “The president has seen and identified this as an injustice. Nothing could ever give my client the year back he spent in prison back, but he has paid enough and deserves his future back which is what a full presidential pardon would do.”
After allowing Saucier to serve his full prison sentence, Trump publicly mentioned him again on Jan. 2, tweeting: “Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aide, 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?”
Saucier, who was 22 years old when he took the cellphone photos in 2009, told the Washington Examiner after Trump’s tweet that he was glad Trump remembered him. “I made an innocent mistake as a kid, it wasn’t planned like Hillary Clinton and them blatantly flouting the law,” he said.
Saucier said a felony conviction makes it hard to find work. As of January, he was working as a garbage man to support his wife and young daughter. His family’s cars were repossessed while he was in prison and his Vermont home is in foreclosure. Saucier has several months left of wearing an ankle monitor.
