I’m okay with it but as I said above I wish he had just commuted it.
To me a pardon suggests that nothing wrong was done. Am I looking at that wrong?
I thought given the context of it, they could clearly see he wasn’t engaged in anything fishy (IIRC) so I thought at worst it should have been Captain’s Mast, handled on station.
They could have busted him in grade, or done something else. I just thought it was sick and unjust to send him to jail for that.
Just my opinion.
Yes. You’re way out of phase on this Chaplain. In a rational world, this kid would have had at worst a General Discharge. The pictures themselves were harmless and nothing that anyone couldn’t have gotten out of Janes All the Worlds Ships. This was Obama and Co.being the complete jerks that they are. Trump does stuff like this to highlight the hypocrisy of scum like Hillary and the rest of the traitors running throughout the government. I’m assuming in your vocation of being a chaplain you tend to see the world in terms of right/wrong (I don’t mean this sarcastically or intend any offense). The world is a lot more grey and this was really the equivalent of a teenager shoplifting. You don’t ruin the kid for that just as you don’t ruin this sailor for what he did. No intent there, actually just pride that he was on a nuke sub.
A pardon is a tacit admission of guilt. But what it does is wipe his record clean so that he would no longer be a felon. A commutation would just end his sentence and not wipe away the status of a felon.
This guy is not a threat to anyone, and by all accounts was a good sailor.
This is the best, most compassionate thing that Trump could do for this man’s family.
Yes, you are looking at it incorrectly. He served a year in prison and his life ruined due to the felony conviction for a very minor transgression.
A pardon was called for from the perspective of mercy and equality under the law, laughable as that idea may be these days. A pardon isn’t expungement; he’ll still have a record.
I interpret this pardon as official forgiveness. All indications are that this sailor was careless and stupid, not malicious. He should not have faced prison time, just lost his clearance, and separated from the Navy.
I wish him well, in a life without access to classified information.
To accept a pardon, you also acknowledge your guilt.
Yes.
He didn't intend to break national security laws, so he shouldn't have been prosecuted in the first place. </sarcasm>
IOW, we're either a nation of laws that applies equally to all or we aren't. Until HRC and her ilk are prosecuted and jailed for breaking national security laws, then this sailor has no business being in prison.
Apply the laws equally or not at all.
Its a good outcome.
He served the full sentence.
The pardon means he can get better jobs than a garbage guy now, which was the only job he could get. Or do you feel his violation should exclude him from normal jobs other than the lowest possible ones ge can get, forever.
>>To me a pardon suggests that nothing wrong was done. Am I looking at that wrong?<<
Depends. But I have read somewhere that, based on the totality of the evidence concerning his unlawful act, his sentence was thought by some to have been too harsh.
with a pardon he can vote again