The Department of Justice charged a Federal contractor in Georgia on Monday with leaking classified materials to the press.
According to a DOJ release, 25-year-old Reality Leigh Winner is being charged with removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet.
Winner was arrested by the FBI at her home on Saturday, June 3, and appeared in federal court in Augusta this afternoon.
“Exceptional law enforcement efforts allowed us quickly to identify and arrest the defendant,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. “Releasing classified material without authorization threatens our nation’s security and undermines public faith in government. People who are trusted with classified information and pledge to protect it must be held accountable when they violate that obligation.”
According to the allegations contained in the criminal complaint:
Winner is a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation assigned to a U.S. government agency facility in Georgia. She has been employed at the facility since on or about February 13, and has held a Top Secret clearance during that time. On or about May 9, Winner printed and improperly removed classified intelligence reporting, which contained classified national defense information from an intelligence community agency, and unlawfully retained it. Approximately a few days later, Winner unlawfully transmitted by mail the intelligence reporting to an online news outlet, The Intercept.
Once investigative efforts identified Winner as a suspect, the FBI obtained and executed a search warrant at her residence. According to the complaint, Winner agreed to talk with agents during the execution of the warrant. During that conversation, Winner admitted intentionally identifying and printing the classified intelligence reporting at issue despite not having a “need to know,” and with knowledge that the intelligence reporting was classified. Winner further admitted removing the classified intelligence reporting from her office space, retaining it, and mailing it from Augusta, Georgia, to the news outlet, which she knew was not authorized to receive or possess the documents.
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2 Responses
Ok and what about Hillary Clinton???
An internet search shows the woman in question had already posted on Facebook her political leanings before the election, making her opinion clear that Russia stole the election for Trump. But the real point to me is that every election official speaking officially in every state in the entire country, without exception, categorically denied any Russian interference in the mechanics of the election (the voting system). Yet the alleged leak is exactly about suspicions of hacking the voting system. So which is it then, did they or didn’t they? But more to the point, if these guys were completely clueless about this until their hatred for Trump led them to investigate, then just who investigated Russian interference in the Obama election? Even now, anyone investigating? Seems to me the investigation is aimed against the Trump campaign, instead of aimed at truly uncovering the true extent of Russian interference, such as going back to the Obama campaigns. As if we are so stupid as to accept that the hacking just happened to start just at the Trump campaign and they were perfect angels under Obama.