Jack Teixeira, the 23-year-old disgraced airman serving a 15-year prison sentence for leaking hundreds of classified documents, said he’s hoping President Donald Trump will pardon him.

“I think they’ll look at someone like me as a supporter and someone who really used what I thought was going to be my last vote in county jail for Trump during 2024. And I just, I believe that indeed he will,” he told ABC News in his first public comments since the start of his sentence.

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His attorney filed a pardon application on Wednesday, which specifically seeks a full pardon rather than a commutation.

“I just feel like there are people who have done far worse things as far as what they did with similar information, and they didn’t get as bad of a treatment as I did,” Teixeira claimed. “But my case was specifically politicized by the Biden administration.”

The former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman pleaded guilty in March 2024 to six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to national security after he leaked hundreds of documents on the Discord app over several months before he was connected to the leaks.

Teixeira urged Trump to “please give me back to my family, to reunite with my family with my rights as an American and with my freedom.”

He enlisted in the U.S. Air National Guard in September 2019 and began leaking classified documents in or around January 2022. He had a top secret clearance while working in the 102 Intelligence Wing and was reprimanded twice for the improper handling of classified material prior to his arrest, according to federal prosecutors.

His mother, Dawn Dufault, argued that his prosecution was “malicious” and his case was “sensationalized.”

“They told the public that they were going to make an example out of Jack,” she said, adding, “If he agrees that it was unfair treatment, give him a pardon.”

The documents he released included classified details about U.S. intelligence on the state of Russia and Ukraine’s war, including expected troop movements. The breach raised questions about DoD’s security clearance processes.

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Teixeira doesn’t believe he “betrayed” the United States; rather, “I believe that I educated a lot of the people who have been kept in the dark,” and he added, “I still believe in my actions.”

The Air Force inspector general investigation concluded that individuals in Teixeira’s unit failed to take proper action after becoming aware of his intelligence-seeking activities, though they were not aware of his alleged unauthorized release of classified information. The Air Force disciplined 15 officers for dereliction in the performance of duties in relation to these leaks.