Former Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna beat the odds Monday, becoming the 8th person pardoned by President Trump after a campaign by supporters who recognized that “it’s who you know" that matters most.

Now an Oklahoma farmhand, Behenna was released from prison in 2014 after serving five years of a murder sentence for shooting an Iraqi roadside bomb suspect, whom he stripped naked during what he said was an unauthorized interrogation.

At the time of Behenna’s prosecution, his mother Vicki Behenna was an assistant U.S. attorney in Oklahoma. Her boss was John Richter, a prominent Republican attorney, and then a U.S. attorney, who took a long-term interest and led the pardon push.

Richter formerly led the Justice Department’s criminal division and said he knew that the department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney is a graveyard for clemency bids, so he sought to leverage contacts to reach Trump directly.

“I never thought that this was going to be considered through a linear process through which I submit the paperwork through the Department of Justice. That’s not the way the world works, unfortunately,” Richter told the Washington Examiner.

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“The common thread is you have to build external support, then you have got to find the right individuals who have relationships who can pick up the phone,” Richter said.

The campaign relied heavily on support from Oklahoma politicians. But it’s unclear who made the pitch directly to Trump, persuading him to issue clemency for the first time in 10 months.

Richter said he has “sneaking suspicions” about who spoke with Trump but would not name them to respect their privacy. “Obviously, someone spoke to the president,” he said.

"It's not likely anyone you have ever heard of, but like most of these processes, it is through word of mouth, and through people who know people. And that's been what has been required for a lot of pardons across a lot of administrations,” Richter said.

In-person asks are powerful opportunities with Trump. He released from prison bank fraudster Sholom Rubashkin after an appeal over lunch from Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, and he freed drug convict Alice Johnson after meeting in the Oval Office with Kim Kardashian.

Many public figures who supported the pardon did not speak with Trump directly, including Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter.

Hunter said he sent two letters to Trump, guided in part by a desire to support military members, but he only heard from the White House on Monday afternoon, with an aide asking for Behenna’s phone number to convey the news.

“The Behennas were persistent. This has been a long haul,” Hunter said. “Their tireless approach to vindicating their family member has been heroic in a sense.”

From the outset, the family argued Behenna, 24 at the time of the shooting, was actually innocent, arguing in appeals the victim lunged and that exculpatory ballistics evidence was concealed.

A White House statement noted political support, but named only Hunter and former Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin.

Fallin, who left office in January after eight years, was a congresswoman during Behenna’s prosecution, and was acquainted with Vicki and her husband Scott, who worked for the FBI. She wrote Trump a letter but said she can’t recall speaking with Trump in person about the case.

“I had lots of conversations with the family,” Fallin said. “From my standpoint, you had an American soldier who is dealing with friends and colleagues who were killed by an al-Qaeda suspect … and according to Michael, he felt he acted in self-defense.”

Through a pardon, Behenna is able to vote and own guns, but his mother said he’s also interested in adopting children and volunteering.

Vicki Behenna told the Washington Examiner she was lucky to have Richter’s Washington savvy.

“I had been contacting people I knew here in Oklahoma who might have an avenue to the president. None of that was fruitful,” she said. “I'm smart enough to understand that if you just go through the pardon office, sometimes paperwork gets lost.”

Behenna’s pardon was instantly controversial, with the American Civil Liberties Union calling it “a presidential endorsement of a murder.“ Vicki Behenna said she is upset to see negative reaction, saying, “Michael is not a Muslim hater. He loves the Iraqi people.”

Vicki Behenna, now working as executive director of the Oklahoma Innocence Project, said she left her job in the U.S. attorney’s office because of her son’s case.

“I couldn’t stomach prosecuting people anymore. I understood what it feels like,” she said. ““It has completely changed our perspective of the criminal justice system.”

