Former NSA contractor accused of leaking documents pleads guilty

[SHOOTER13]

Reality Winner, former NSA contractor accused of leaking documents, pleads guilty

Fox News /Alex Pappas / 21 minutes ago

© Provided by Fox News Reality Winner, the former National Security Agency contractor accused of leaking classified information to journalists, on Tuesday pleaded guilty as part of a deal with prosecutors

LOSER !!!

Reality Winner, the former National Security Agency contractor accused of leaking classified information to journalists, pleaded guilty Tuesday as part of a deal with prosecutors.

Winner, 26, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful retention and dissemination of national defense information.

Her plea agreement, signed June 19, says she’s facing a possible sentence of 63 months in jail and three years of supervised release. No date has been set yet for a sentencing hearing.

Winner was arrested in June 2017 for allegedly feeding a classified report with information on Russia's involvement in the 2016 presidential election to a news outlet.

“I misused my clearance to print out the report…I did so of my own free will,” Winner said during Tuesday's court hearing.

Winner was charged, under the Espionage Act, with removing classified material from a government facility and leaking it. According to court documents, Winner snuck the document out of a secure NSA facility by folding it and putting it in her pantyhose.


During Tuesday's hearing, the judge asked Winner questions about her mental state. Winner disclosed she is taking antidepressant Zoloft and battling an eating disorder as well as depression.

She has been held at the Lincoln County Jail near Augusta, Ga. since 2017.
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ACCUSED LEAKER WANTED TO 'BURN THE WHITE HOUSE DOWN'

Court documents also said Winner [URL='http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/09/28/alleged-leaker-reality-winner-griped-about-fox-news-on-her-office-tvs-wanted-al-jazeera.html']complained to her bosses that Fox News was playing in her office – suggesting Al Jazeera would have been a more appropriate choice.[/URL]
[URL='https://web.skype.com/share?url=http%3a%2f%2fa.msn.com%2f01%2fen-us%2fAAzc6M1%3focid%3dss&lang=en-us&flow_id=c47deb17-70f6-45b3-9f5f-32be7fcf5216&source=msn'][URL='https://web.skype.com/share?url=http%3a%2f%2fa.msn.com%2f01%2fen-us%2fAAzc6M1%3focid%3dss&lang=en-us&flow_id=c47deb17-70f6-45b3-9f5f-32be7fcf5216&source=msn']
[URL='https://web.skype.com/share?url=http%3a%2f%2fa.msn.com%2f01%2fen-us%2fAAzc6M1%3focid%3dss&lang=en-us&flow_id=c47deb17-70f6-45b3-9f5f-32be7fcf5216&source=msn']"I've filed formal complaints about them having Fox News on,” she told FBI agents. “… Uh, at least, for God's sake put Al Jazeera on, or a slideshow with people's pets. I've tried everything to get that changed."
[URL='https://web.skype.com/share?url=http%3a%2f%2fa.msn.com%2f01%2fen-us%2fAAzc6M1%3focid%3dss&lang=en-us&flow_id=c47deb17-70f6-45b3-9f5f-32be7fcf5216&source=msn']
[URL='https://web.skype.com/share?url=http%3a%2f%2fa.msn.com%2f01%2fen-us%2fAAzc6M1%3focid%3dss&lang=en-us&flow_id=c47deb17-70f6-45b3-9f5f-32be7fcf5216&source=msn']She was working as a contractor with a Top Secret security clearance with Pluribus International Corporation at a federal facility in Georgia when, according to the Justice Department, she printed out a sheet of paper with classified information.
[URL='https://web.skype.com/share?url=http%3a%2f%2fa.msn.com%2f01%2fen-us%2fAAzc6M1%3focid%3dss&lang=en-us&flow_id=c47deb17-70f6-45b3-9f5f-32be7fcf5216&source=msn']
[URL='https://web.skype.com/share?url=http%3a%2f%2fa.msn.com%2f01%2fen-us%2fAAzc6M1%3focid%3dss&lang=en-us&flow_id=c47deb17-70f6-45b3-9f5f-32be7fcf5216&source=msn']While the DOJ didn't specify which outlet reported the secret information, Winner's charges were announced just as The Intercept published details of a NSA report on Russian hacking efforts.
[URL='https://web.skype.com/share?url=http%3a%2f%2fa.msn.com%2f01%2fen-us%2fAAzc6M1%3focid%3dss&lang=en-us&flow_id=c47deb17-70f6-45b3-9f5f-32be7fcf5216&source=msn']
[URL='https://web.skype.com/share?url=http%3a%2f%2fa.msn.com%2f01%2fen-us%2fAAzc6M1%3focid%3dss&lang=en-us&flow_id=c47deb17-70f6-45b3-9f5f-32be7fcf5216&source=msn']The report seemingly contained information detailing how Russian hackers got into a U.S. voting software supplier and sent so-called "spear-phishing" emails to more than 100 local election officials ahead of the 2016 election.
[URL='https://web.skype.com/share?url=http%3a%2f%2fa.msn.com%2f01%2fen-us%2fAAzc6M1%3focid%3dss&lang=en-us&flow_id=c47deb17-70f6-45b3-9f5f-32be7fcf5216&source=msn']
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[SHOOTER13]

BACK STORY:

Reality Winner: Accused leaker wanted to 'burn the White House down'
Published June 09, 2017




The case of Reality Winner


The woman accused of leaking classified information once wrote she wanted "to burn the White House Down...find somewhere in Kurdistan to live," prompting prosecutors on Thursday to argue she would flee the country if she was released on bond.


Reality Winner appeared before a judge in Augusta, Ga., on Thursday who ordered her to remain jailed until her trial. Prosecutors argued that the 25-year-old might try to flee the U.S. if she was released on bond. They added that Winner wrote in her notebook alleged plans to set the White House on fire, travel to Afghanistan and pledge her allegiance to the Taliban, WSB-TV reported.

Winner also called her mother while in jail and coached her on what tell the media, urging her to say that her daughter was "scared."

"Mom, those documents. I screwed up," Winner also reportedly confessed to her mom in the recorded jailhouse phone call.

Winner also allegedly told her sister she was "pretty, white and cute" and that Winner believed her bond hearing would play out in her favor, according to the news station.

WHO IS REALITY WINNER? ACCUSED LEAKER WANTED TO ‘RESIST’ TRUMP


The former government contractor pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges that she illegally retained and transmitted national defense information. Winner, the former Air Force linguist who speaks Arabic and Farsi, is accused of copying and mailing a classified report containing top-secret material to an online news organization, according to prosecutors.

Authorities haven't described the report or named the news outlet, but the Justice Department announced Winner's arrest Monday as The Intercept reported it had obtained a classified National Security Agency report suggesting Russian hackers attacked a U.S. voting software supplier before last year's presidential election. The NSA report was dated May 5, the same as the document Winner is charged with leaking.

Prosecutors also raised concerns for a missing removable thumb drive that Winner inserted into a top-secret computer before she left the military. It's unclear where the thumb drive is now or what it might contain, they said.

Winner's mother and stepfather defended their daughter, telling the judge she had no criminal history and that she would not attempt to flee. They added they would use their 20-acre home in Kingsville, Texas, to finance her bond.

“She offered up her life for this nation and to see her treated so vilely is an insult to every person who’s ever worn a uniform,” Gary Davis, Winner's stepfather, told WSB-TV.

In court, Winner's defense attorney Titus Nichols said his client was being punished for being a typical tech-savvy millennial and exaggerating the threat she poses.

"Because my client is a millennial and she knows how to use technology, that's somehow proof of evil intent," Nichols said. "The government is scraping and clawing to build a mountain out of a molehill."

However, the judge said whether Winner's violent words were "a jest or not, it still concerns" him. Though prosecutors don't think Winner is a jihadist or terrorist sympathizer.

"The government is not in any way suggesting the defendant has become a jihadist or that she is a Taliban sympathizer," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Solari told the judge.

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[threetango]

Slap on the wrist and a reduced sentence, back on the street in 6 months.

 

[Supervisor42]

Slap on the wrist and a reduced sentence, back on the street in 6 months.

Hell, all she has to do is toss her papers, show up on the southern border with a kid, and she'll get "catch & release".

Back in the old days it was called "espionage" or "treason" and was severely punished.

"Julius was executed first; he died after the first electric shock. Ethel's execution did not go smoothly. After she was given the normal course of three electric shocks, attendants removed the strapping and other equipment only to have doctors determine that Ethel's heart was still beating. Two more electric shocks were applied, and at the conclusion, eyewitnesses (Bob Considine among them) reported that smoke rose from her head.

Nowadays, it's just a case of first amendment rights to be argued in the courts for years resulting in the aforementioned slap on the wrist.
I guess the term 'traitor' is no longer politically-correct.