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. 

 WASHINGTON ― A former Navy sailor who pleaded guilty to a felony count of unauthorized possession and retention of national defense information for snapping photos on a nuclear attack submarine has received a pardon from President Donald Trump — and his attorney says Fox News deserves the credit. 
 
 The legal team for Kristian Saucier compared his case to the handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. That grabbed Trump’s interest, and it’s now paid off in the form of a presidential pardon, announced Friday. 
 
 Last week, Saucier appeared on “Fox & Friends,” a program that the president records and watches during his morning “executive time.” Trump frequently sends tweets that correspond with segments on the morning show. 
 
 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 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 
 
 Ronald Daigle, a lawyer hired to advocate for Saucier’s pardon, told HuffPost that Fox News played a key role in getting the case on Trump’s radar. 
 
 “Absolutely,” Daigle said when asked whether going on Fox News was a big part of their strategy. “They were big supporters of Kris right from the beginning. They supported Kris.” 
 
 In 2016, shortly after then-FBI Director James Comey announced the results of the Clinton email investigation, Saucier’s legal team began comparing the submariner’s case to Clinton’s. The Justice Department responded that Saucier was “grasping at highly imaginative and speculative straws,” but the case got Trump’s attention. 
 
 Saucier was sentenced to a year behind bars prior to the 2016 election ― a sentence he completed before his pardon. One reason that federal prosecutors likely handled the case the way they did: Saucier destroyed a laptop, a camera and the camera’s memory card shortly after he was interviewed by the FBI. Pieces of a laptop were later found in the woods near a Saucier family home. Prosecutors tend to treat suspects more harshly when they are accused of destroying evidence. 
 
 Since the election, Saucier’s team has “sent tons of marketing materials to the White House” and distributed press releases in an effort to “capture the president’s opinion,” Daigle said. 
 
 Saucier’s team was aiming for a “political” pardon rather than a pardon that goes through the normal process of the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, Daigle said. Saucier was not yet eligible to go through that lengthy procedure. 
 
 Office of the Pardon Attorney 
 
 “I flipped the process around,” Daigle said. “We were doing something to try to capture the attention of the president. When we put the pardon in, we did a press release for that. When we heard back from the pardon office, we put a press release for that. Every step of the way, we’re trying to do what we can to be on the radar, and hopefully the president will hear us. We think he heard us more than once.” 
 
 Daigle believes that Trump simply ordered that a pardon be prepared for his signature and that the Justice Department had very little involvement. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on its role in the pardon. 
 
 Daigle’s pardon strategy isn’t going to work for defendants across the board, he said. 
 
 “It’s not going to happen in every case. It just happened because we had a set of circumstances that were truly unjust,” said Daigle, referring to his argument that his client was prosecuted where others who committed similar offenses weren’t. 
 
 Daigle said he and his client were “very excited” about the news. He said he hoped Saucier, who has a young child, would be able to get his military benefits back. 
 
 “This would make a huge difference to his family if he can get his benefits back,” Daigle said. “This is a very talented young man, and he couldn’t find a job coming out for anything, only as a garbage collector. Now he’ll be able to go after these licenses and stuff to have a nice career on the outside.”
– Despite it getting dragged by the Justice Department and dismissed by a judge, lawyers for Kristian Saucier have proven that a legal argument consisting of "Well, what about Hillary Clinton though?" is a great first step toward a presidential pardon. CBS News reports Saucier, a former Navy sailor, served a year in prison after pleading guilty in 2016 to taking pictures of the reactor inside the USS Alexandria nuclear submarine seven years earlier. Saucier's lawyers admitted he knew the area was classified but say he wanted to show his family his job. Prosecutors said Saucier was disgruntled and risked national security, not to mention obstructed justice by destroying a laptop and camera. Saucier's lawyers argued he shouldn't go to prison because the FBI didn't charge Clinton for mishandling classified information, according to Bloomberg. That argument got the case a lot of attention on Fox News and, therefore, a lot of attention from President Trump. Saucier's lawyer, Ronald Daigle, says Fox News coverage was "absolutely" key in getting Trump to care about the case, HuffPost reports. During the presidential campaign, Trump said Saucier's "life was ruined" despite doing "nothing" compared to what Clinton did. “It’s an old submarine, believe me, they have pictures of that submarine that nobody knows about, probably, right?” Trump said days before the election. Saucier, having completed his sentence, appeared on Fox & Friends last week. On Friday, the White House announced Trump had pardoned him. "Congratulations to Kristian Saucier, a man who has served proudly in the Navy, on your newly found Freedom," Trump tweeted. "Now you can go out and have the life you deserve!"