Grand jury indicts woman in leaked secrets case

Winner, 25, was arrested and accused of mailing classified NSA documents to “a news outlet”, according to the US Justice Department, which said an investigation showed she had printed and shared the investigative report.

Reality Leigh Winner, 25, has been charged with sending to the news media a classified government report about Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

If convicted, victor faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $250,000, according to court documents.

The Justice Department announced the case against victor about an hour after the Intercept published the document, a May 5 intelligence report from the NSA.

Winner’s mother, Billie Winner-Davis, told the court her daughter had never been in any trouble and was at the top of her class throughout her school days.

Nichols, her attorney, said his client has “just been caught in the middle of something bigger than her”. “So she’s got a lot of valuable information in her head”.

Solari cautioned that prosecutors were not trying to link victor to terrorism.

Winner’s mother and stepfather told ABC affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta earlier this week that victor, an Air Force veteran, is a patriot. Authorities don’t know what was saved to the drive or where it is now. He also mentioned her written comment about burning the White House.

Investigators say they were able to track victor by observing that the document leaked to The Intercept appeared to be folded, which led them to believe it had been printed out. Thomas certainly didn’t fail to mention her Air Force commendation medal and that her family describes her as a “patriot”.

Victor follows 50 Twitter accounts, among them Edward Snowden, WikiLeaks, several with links to the group Anonymous and “alt” government agency accounts that became popular after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, including AltFDA.

Prosecutors said a phone call to her sister expressed her confidence in how to play the court during her bond hearing.

The indictment alleges that victor, a former Air Force linguist, leaked the confidential information in May 2017 while employed at private contractor Pluribus International.

She “liked’ a tweet from the hacking group Anonymous in November that hinted at hacking a Mac computer the then-President-elect was using. She doesn’t deserve that”, Winner’s mother told WSB-TV.

Winner-Davis is of the belief that her daughter is “ready to pay the price” if she is guilty.

“I didn’t know what company she worked for”, Winner-Davis told Cooper.

“If she made this mistake”, Davis said, referring to the leaked documents, “it needs to be balanced against what she has done in the past and how she has served this country”. Victor was not one of the employees who were classified as “need to know” for the document. Her lawyer says he will argue for her release.

“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”, Winner’s father, Gary Davis, said.

But a U.S. judge at a hearing today will weigh the risks of freeing Reality Winner, a former air force linguist with an otherwise unblemished record, pending trial.

The bond hearing will take place at the Federal Courthouse in Downtown Augusta at 4 pm.

“Whether that’s a jest or not, it still concerns me”, Epps said.

But Swearingen added that The Intercept may have sealed Winner’s fate by showing the document to a government official as part of an effort to verify its authenticity.