Thread: Feds torpedo Navy sailor's 'Clinton defense'

Feds torpedo Navy sailor's 'Clinton defense'

Wed August 17, 2016

(CNN)A Navy sailor facing prison time for taking photos of a classified area on a US nuclear attack submarine is asking a federal judge for leniency, citing the government's decision not to indict Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information.

Petty Officer First Class Kristian Saucier, a 29-year-old mechanic, admitted he used his personal cellphone on three occasions in 2009 to take six pictures of the submarine's classified propulsion system while working in the engine room, according to court documents.

In a court filing, Saucier's lawyer compares the half-dozen classified photos Saucier had in his possession to the 110 classified emails the FBI determined were on Hillary Clinton's personal server.

"Mr. Saucier possessed six (6) photographs classified as 'confidential/restricted,' far less than Clinton's 110 emails," Derrick Hogan wrote to the US District Court in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in a story first reported by Politico.

Advocating for probation, Hogan said it would be "unjust and unfair" for Saucier -- who has pleaded guilty -- to do prison time "for a crime those more powerful than him will likely avoid."

The federal government dismissed the comparison in a court filing Monday and instead asked the judge to sentence Saucier to more than five years behind bars at the sentencing hearing this Friday. The federal sentencing guideline ranges from 63 to 78 months.

"The defendant is grasping at highly imaginative and speculative straws in trying to further draw a comparison to the matter of Sec. Hilary (sic) Clinton based upon virtually no understanding and knowledge of the facts involved, the information at issue, not to mention any issues of intent and knowledge," the prosecutors said in court papers.

Saucier, who served on the USS Alexandria submarine from September 2007 until March 2012, had a secret security clearance and admitted knowing he was not authorized to take the photos, which depicted classified material.

Still, Saucier's lawyers claim his reason for taking the photos was benign.

"Mr. Saucier admitted that he knew when he took the pictures in 2009 that they were classified and that he did so out of the misguided desire to keep these pictures in order to one day show his family and his future children what he did while he was in the Navy," Hogan wrote in a court filing.

Saucier's conduct is different from Clinton's email controversy, even his lawyers admit. The former secretary of state has said she did not knowingly send or receive emails that were classified, while Saucier has admitted knowing his conduct was illegal.

FBI Director James Comey, however, said his investigation found that "any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton's position ... should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation" about classified matters. Comey also noted that a small number of the emails did bear markings indicating the presence of classified information, a fact that Saucier's defense attorneys pointed to.

"I don't think that we're grasping at straws," said Greg Rinckey, one of the defense attorneys representing Saucier. "I think the cases are similar. Are they apples to apples? No, absolutely not. However it's now been shown that Secretary Clinton sent and received emails that were marked classified at the time contrary to her sworn testimony."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/16/politi...email-defense/

Sailor imprisoned for photos of nuclear submarine cites Hillary Clinton's emails in his defense

08/19/2016 02:02:03 PM PDT

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- A Navy sailor was sentenced Friday to a year in prison for taking photos of classified areas inside a nuclear attack submarine while it was in port in Connecticut.

Kristian Saucier, of Arlington, Vermont, appeared in federal court in Bridgeport, where a judge also ordered him to serve six months of home confinement with electronic monitoring during a three-year period of supervised release after the prison time. He pleaded guilty in May to unauthorized detention of defense information and had faced five to six years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

Saucier admitted to taking six photos of classified areas inside the USS Alexandria in 2009 when it was in Groton and he was a 22-year-old machinist mate on the submarine. The photos showed the nuclear reactor compartment, the auxiliary steam propulsion panel and the maneuvering compartment, prosecutors said.

Saucier took the photos knowing they were classified, but did so only to be able to show his family and future children what he did while he was in the Navy, his lawyers said. He denied sharing the photos with any unauthorized recipient.

Saucier, who grew up in Cape Coral, Florida, had asked U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill to sentence him to probation. In court filings, he compared his case to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. The FBI declined to charge Clinton for her handling of classified information while using the server.

"It was a foolish mistake by a very young man," his lawyer, Greg Rinckey, said after the sentencing. "It's a very sad case because Kristian Saucier is a fine young man. We don't believe this was really his true character."

Saucier is expected to receive an "other than honorable" discharge from the Navy next month, Rinckey said. He is to report to prison on Oct. 12.

Saucier did not speak during Friday's court proceeding. Federal prosecutors said the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service were never able to determine if the photos had been distributed to unauthorized people because Saucier destroyed key evidence including his laptop computer, a camera and a memory card after an interview with the FBI in 2012.

Prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill to send Saucier to prison for five years, saying his conduct put national security at risk.

The investigation began in 2012 when a waste station supervisor in Hampton, Connecticut, found Saucier's cellphone with the submarine photos on top of a pile of demolition trash and showed it to his friend, who was a retired Navy chief and brought the phone to the NCIS, according to court documents.

Saucier's lawyers also said two other Alexandria crew members were caught taking photos in the same locations as Saucier, but were not prosecuted -- only disciplined by the Navy.

http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-wo...llary-clintons