Mediaboss Marketing

Reality Winner, a government contractor accused of leaking top secret National Security Agency intelligence on Russias alleged interference in last years election, was arrested on Monday, according to court documents filed in the case.

Within hours of the arrest, the Department of Justice announced she had been charged with removing classified material from the government facility where she worked and mailing it to a news outlet. She could now face 10 years in prison.

A source with knowledge of the matter later confirmed to ABC News that the charges stemmed from a May 5, 2017, intelligence document published on Monday by The Intercept, an online news organization best known for its publication and coverage of leaked documents on government activities provided by Edward Snowden.

Winner's background

Winner of Augusta, Georgia, is a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation, authorities said. She had been working at an unidentified government facility in Georgia "since on or about Feb. 13" and held a top secret security clearance, according to authorities.

She is a former Air Force linguist who speaks Pashto, Farsi and Dari, according to her attorney, and had recently worked as a yoga instructor at Oh Yeah Yoga in Augusta.

"She is still in federal custody and we have a detention hearing on Thursday to determine if shell be released before trial," her attorney, Titus Thomas Nichols, told ABC News in a statement Monday night. "Shes a good person with no criminal history who is caught in a political whirlwind."

Winners mother, Billie Winner-Davis, described her as a "very passionate" person who was outspoken about her beliefs.

"Very passionate about her views and things like that, but shes never to my knowledge been active in politics or any of that, Winner-Davis told The Daily Beast on Monday.

How the alleged leak started

On March 22, The Intercept hosted a podcast online looking at, among other things, the public outcry over Russia's alleged collusion with associates of President Donald Trump and the Kremlin's alleged interference in last year's presidential election.

Host Jeremy Scahill said "there is a tremendous amount of hysterics" and "a lot of premature conclusions being drawn around all of this Russia stuff," but "there's not a lot of hard evidence to back it up."

Appearing as a guest on the podcast, Intercept reporter Glenn Greenwald agreed, saying that while "it's very possible" Russia was behind election-related hacks last year, "we still haven't seen any evidence for it."

Little more than a week later, Winner allegedly used a Gmail account to contact The Intercept, and she "appeared to request transcripts of a podcast," court documents said.

More than a month later, the NSA secretly issued the classified document now at the center of the leak case. And within days, Winner allegedly found it, printed it out and mailed it to The Intercept.

How it all came to light

On May 30, three weeks after Winner allegedly printed the classified document, The Intercept contacted the U.S. government, likely through the NSA, to discuss an upcoming story based on the intelligence document it had obtained. The Intercept even shared a copy of the document with government officials, who confirmed that it was indeed classified at the top secret level, "indicating that its unauthorized disclosure could reasonably result in exceptionally grave damage to the national security," the affidavit said.

Two days later, the FBI was notified of the matter and initiated an investigation to determine the source of the leak.

Further analysis of the documents showed that they "appeared to be folded and/or creased, suggesting they had been printed and hand-carried out of a secure space," according to the affidavit.

Winner was one of just six individuals who had printed the intelligence document, according to an internal audit of the agency that housed the report. The audit also revealed that Winner was the only individual of the group that had email contact with the news outlet.

FBI agent Justin Garrick said in the affidavit filed with the court that he interviewed Winner at her home on Saturday and that she "admitted intentionally identifying and printing the classified intelligence reporting at issue" and sent it to a news outlet.

The news outlet was not identified in the charging documents, but a source with knowledge of the matter confirmed that the charges were connected to The Intercepts Monday report titled: "Top-Secret NSA report details Russian hacking effort days before 2016 election."

The potential impact

As stated above, the leaked document has provided the public with the most detailed account yet of how Russian hackers targeted American election systems.

The Intercept posted a redacted classified NSA document, detailing how Russian hackers allegedly infiltrated outside vendors dealing with voter-related information ahead of last year's presidential election.

The document said Russian military intelligence "executed cyber espionage operations against a named U.S. company in August 2016 evidently to obtain information on elections-related software and hardware solutions, according to information that became available in April 2017."

ABC News' Mike Levine contributed to this report.

Read the original post:
What we know about the leaked NSA report on Russia

WASHINGTON A government contractor in Georgia was arrested this weekend after a classified National Security Agency reportwas leaked on an alleged cyberattack attempt by Russian military intelligence officers on a voting software company and local election officials.

Reality Leigh Winner, a 25-year-old federal contractor for Pluribus International Corp. who had a top secret security clearance and was working at a government agency, was arrested by FBI agents Saturday at her home in Augusta, Georgia, according to the Justice Department.

The Intercept published a storyMonday on a highly classified May 5 intelligence report the outlet had received anonymously thatanalyzes intelligence very recently acquired by the agency about a months-long Russian intelligence cyber effort against elements of the U.S. election and voting infrastructure.

Reuters

The Justice Department announced Winners arrest hours after The Intercept story was published. While it did not name The Intercept or the NSA, the details included in an affidavit from an FBI agent leave little doubt the case revolves around the disclosure of the May 5 NSA report that The Interceptpublished online.

The affidavit states that an Intelligence Community Agency was contacted by a News Outlet about an upcoming story on May 30.The news outlet gave the agency a copy of the May 5 document, and the agency determined the pages of the intelligence reporting appeared to be folded and/or creased, suggesting they had been printed out and hand-carried out of a secure place, the affidavit states. The copy of the May 5 report published by The Intercept shows creases that make it appear it was folded to fit into a letter-sized envelope.

The NSA conducted an internal audit and determined that six people had printed the May 5 report. The agency audited six desktop computers and found that Winner had email contact with the news outlet and that no others had communicated with the publication.

Winner, who had worked for Pluribus since February, reportedly admitted to government agents Saturday that she had printed the report, removed it from her office and mailed it to the news outlet from Augusta. Winner also allegedlyacknowledged that she was aware of the contents of the intelligence reporting and that she knew the contents of the reporting could be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of a foreign nation, the FBI affidavit said.

Winner, an Air Force veteran, has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration on Twitter, tagging the presidents Twitter account in multiple messages.

Winners mother, Billie Winner-Davis,told Guardian reporter Jon Swaine that she is a former U.S. Air Force linguist who speaks Pashto, Farsi and Dari. But she was not able to provide any insight into her daughters arrest.

I dont know who she might have sent it to, Winners mother told The Daily Beast in an interview, adding that Justice Department officials were very vague.

They said she mishandled and released documents that she shouldnt have, but we had no idea what it pertained to or who.

She called us yesterday night. She asked if we could help out with relocating her cat and dog, she said.

The Intercept indicated it does not know who sent the document but was able to independently authenticate it.

As we reported in the story, the NSA document was provided to us anonymously, Ryan Grim, the Washington bureau chief of The Intercept, said in an email. The Intercept has no knowledge of the identity of the source.(Grim is HuffPosts former Washington bureau chief.)

Notably, the quote included in the DOJ press release on the case comes from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein rather than Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had recused himself from cases involving Russia and the 2016 campaign.

Exceptional law enforcement efforts allowed us quickly to identify and arrest the defendant, Rosensteins statement said. Releasing classified material without authorization threatens our nations 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.

President Donald Trump has told the Justice Department to get more aggressive in cracking down on leaks. He reportedly told former FBI Director James Comey to consider jailing journalists.

Leaks to journalists occur every day, as they have for decades, and are a vital source of information for the public in our democracy, said ACLU attorney Patrick Toomey. It would be deeply troubling if this prosecution marked the beginning of a draconian crackdown on leaks to the press by the Trump administration.

Read the original post:
FBI Arrests Federal Contractor In Leak Of NSA Report On ...

Barely an hour after a news organization published an article about a top-secret National Security Agency document on Russian hacking, the Justice Department announced charges against a 25-year-old government contractor who a senior federal official says was the leaker of the document.

The May 5, 2017, intelligence document published by The Intercept, an online news organization, describes new details about Russian efforts to hack voting systems in the U.S. a week prior to the 2016 presidential election. While the document doesnt say the hacking changed any votes, it "raises the possibility that Russian hacking may have breached at least some elements of the voting system, with disconcertingly uncertain results."

Even as the document was ricocheting around Washington, the Justice Department announced that a criminal complaint was filed in the Southern District of Georgia, charging Reality Leigh Winner, 25, a federal contractor, with removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet.

The complaint did not link the charges with the story, but a senior federal official confirmed to NBC News that Winner is the accused leaker of the document published by the Intercept. The NSA has a large facility in Georgia.

The complaint says she admitted to printing out the document and mailing it to the news outlet.

It adds that the government found evidence that Winner "had email contact" with the news outlet, and that Winner was one of just six individuals who had viewed the intelligence reporting since the U.S. government published it internally.

Related: NSA Leak Mystery Not Solved With Arrest of Hal Martin

She was arrested by the FBI at her home Saturday, according to a senior federal official. She faces a single charge of "gathering, transmitting or losing defense information."

Winner is a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation, authorities said. She had been employed at the facility since on or about February 13, and held a Top Secret clearance.

Her attorney, Titus Thomas Nichols, told NBC News that his client is "looking forward to putting this behind her," and has no prior criminal history.

Originally posted here:
Feds Arrest NSA Contractor in Leak of Top Secret Russia ...

The woman charged by the Department of Justice with stealing Top Secret information from the National Security Agency apparently believes being white is a form of terrorism.

Thats according to a tweet the alleged leaker, Reality Winner, sent in February. Winner, who is herself white, tweeted at rapper Kanye West that he should make a shirt declaring whiteness an act of terror.

@kanyewest you should make a shirt that says, being white is terrorism, she tweeted.

Winners social media history is filled with left-wing messages and support for progressives like Bernie Sanders, as The Daily Callers Chuck Ross has previously documented. (RELATED: NSA Leaker Is A Bernie Supporter Who Resists Trump)

The majority of her recent tweets are angrily directed against President Donald Trump, in particular rehashing the liberal trope about tiny hands. She has also called the president an orange fascist, a cunt and bashed his selection of Confederate General Jeff Sessions amounts to racism. Sessions is head of the agency currently prosecuting Winner.

Winner held a Top Secret security clearance for her job at Pluribus International, an NSA contractor. She reportedly is the source for The Intercepts Monday report about previously unknown Russian interference in the 2016 election. (RELATED: Trump Admin Catches One Of The Leakers)

Read more:
NSA Leaker: 'Being White Is Terrorism' | The Daily Caller

The 25-year-old woman who stole Top Secret documents from the National Security Agency and leaked them to The Intercept appears to be a supporter of Bernie Sanders and other progressive icons, such as Bill Maher and Michael Moore.

Reality Leigh Winners apparent social media footprint also shows that she is a supporter of other liberal causes, including the Womens March and the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim civil rights group.

She also recently referred to President Trump as a piece of shit because of his position on the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protests.

Winner was indicted in federal court on Monday after she allegedly stole classified documents from her employer, Pluribus International, a defense contractor that does work for the NSA from its offices in Augusta, Ga.

Winner admitted to FBI agents that she stole the documents and provided them to The Intercept. The news site published an article on Monday that appears to be based on the stolen materials.The Top Secret records show that Russian agents attempted to hack into U.S. voting systems prior to the November election.

The federal complaint filed against Winner reveals that she stole the classified documents on May 9, four days after they were published by the NSA. She printed the report and sent it through ground mail to The Intercept. On May 30, a reporter with the outlet contacted the NSA inquiring about the documents. The agency then contacted the FBI, which dispatched agents to interview and apprehend Winner at her home in Augusta.

Other than her left-leaning Facebook page, Winner has a limited online footprint. One news article from the Kingsville (Tex.) Record shows that she graduated from Air Force basic training in March 2011.

A photo of Winner has not been publicly released, but her Facebook page includes information that matches details contained in a federal indictment filed against her in New York on Monday.

The indictment states that Winner has blonde hair and is five-feet-five.The document also mentions that Winner was planning a vacation to Belize last month and that she drives a light-colored Nissan Cube. Winners social media accounts show that she visited Belize and drives a car matching that description.

Jon Swaine, a reporter with The Guardian, also identified Winner.

Winners posts on Facebook suggest that she is politically active.

OnFeb. 14, a day after Winner took her Top Secret job at Pluribus, Winner posted a photo outside of the Atlanta offices of Georgia Sen. David Perdue.

Winner wrote that she had a 30-minute private meeting with the Republican lawmakers state policy director.

She said they discussed my concerns regarding climate change and what the state of Georgia is doing to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.

Meanwhile, my plea that our senators not be afraid to directly state when our president or his cabinet tell outright lies was well heard. I was able to draw the parallel between the 2011 interview of President Bashar al Assad claiming utter ignorance of the human rights violations his citizens were protesting to Trumps statement last week that the White House hadnt received any calls about the DAPL, nor were there any protests before last week. They got the message, she wrote.

A spokeswoman for Perdue released a statement on Tuesday calling the allegations against Winner very serious.

The allegations against Ms. Winner are very serious, and if true, directly threaten our national security.Wetrust our Justice Department will get to the bottom of this and handle it appropriately, the spokeswoman said.

Winner was heavily critical of Trump just after he took office. She used the hashtag NeverMyPresident and Resist in a Facebook post about his position on DAPL.

Winner posted on Facebook most recently on Friday, the day before she was interviewed by the FBI.

You are what you love, not who loves you, she wrote.

This article has been updated with additional information, including about Winners meeting in February at the offices of Georgia Sen. David Perdue.

Follow Chuck on Twitter

Here is the original post:
NSA Leaker Is A Bernie Supporter Who 'Resists' Trump | The ...