GEORGIA
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Reality Winner, 26, of Augusta, Georgia, who leaked U.S. secrets to the media about Russia’s attempts to hack the 2016 presidential election was sentenced to five years and three months in prison.
Winner was arrested by the FBI at her home in Augusta, on June 3, 2017.
Thursday’s hearing lasted less than 45 minutes. Winner entered the courtroom in handcuffs, her hair down and smiling, according to NBC News.
She held her hands behind her back for most of the hearing, except when she delivered her personal statement, according to NBC news.
The parties filed a plea agreement on June 21, in which Winner agreed to plead guilty to the one-count indictment charging her with unlawful retention and transmission of national defense information.
The sentence was part of a plea deal.
“The defendant schemed to take and disclose classified information she had sworn to protect – and then did so almost as soon as she had the chance,” said Assistant Attorney General John Demers.
“When obtaining Top Secret clearance as a government employee or contractor, the handling of top secret information is clearly spelled out along with the ramifications of mishandling such information,” said Special Agent in Charge J.C. Hacker. “Revealing sources and methods to the advantage of our adversaries and to the detriment of our country will never be acceptable and the FBI and Department of Justice will spare no effort to prosecute and punish anyone who would do so.”
Winner was a contractor assigned to a U.S. government agency facility in Georgia.
She had been employed at the facility since on or about Feb. 13, 2017, and held a TOP SECRET//Sensitive Compartmented or SCI clearance during that time. Prior to that position, Winner had served in the U.S. Air Force from 2010-2016 and held a TOP SECRET//SCI security clearance, according to officials.
Evidence indicated that on or about May 9, 2017, Winner printed an intelligence report that was classified at the TOP SECRET//SCI level, and she removed it from the facility where she worked.
Information may be classified as TOP SECRET if its unauthorized disclosure can reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States.
Later on May 9, Winner unlawfully transmitted a hard copy of the intelligence report to an online news outlet.
The intelligence report revealed the sources and methods used to acquire the information contained in the report, which, if disclosed, would be harmful to the United States and valuable to our adversaries, according to authorities.