President Donald Trump on Tuesday compared the actions of Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, to other cases when individuals have been severely punished for mishandling classified materials.
"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," Trump tweeted.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/948174033882927104
Trump appeared to refer to a case involving U.S. sailor Kristian Saucier who pleaded guilty to taking six photos of classified areas inside the USS Alexandria, a nuclear submarine, in 2009. Saucier's lawyers said the then-22-year-old took the photos to be able to show his family what he did while in the Navy. The former machinist mate was sentenced in 2016 to a year in prison followed by six months home confinement, 100 hours of community service, and a $100 fine, Fox Business reported at the time.
"We need to make sure that every service person understands the consequences of playing fast and loose with important information," a federal judge said during Saucier's sentencing hearing.
The case was compared at the time to Clinton's use of a private, unsecured email server to share emails that including classified information, with many noting the mishandling of information was more extensive under Clinton.
The State Department released 2,800 work-related emails on Dec. 29 from the laptop computer of Abedin’s estranged husband, disgraced former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner. The emails were released in cooperation with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the conservative group Judicial Watch.
The released emails were part of the same batch of emails uncovered during the final weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election. The FBI's decision to reveal the existence of those emails at the time sparked outrage among Democrats. Clinton still blames then-FBI director James Comey for costing her the presidency by reopening the FBI investigation into her use of a private email server after he previously exonerated her.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton released a statement after the release of the emails.
"This is a major victory. After years of hard work in federal court, Judicial Watch has forced the State Department to finally allow Americans to see these public documents," Fitton said. "It will be in keeping with our past experience that Abedin’s emails on Weiner’s laptop will include classified and other sensitive materials."
"That these government docs were on Anthony Weiner’s laptop dramatically illustrates the need for the Justice Department to finally do a serious investigation of Hillary Clinton’s and Huma Abedin’s obvious violations of law."