In the first criminal leak case of Trump’s presidency, the Justice Department announced Monday that an intelligence contractor, Reality Leigh Winner, leaked a classified report about Russian interference in the U.S. election to the news media. The Justice Department announced the case against Winner about an hour after The Intercept published an intelligence report from the National Security Agency.
The leak
The FBI arrested Winner on Saturday after charging her for leaking the report. The report described two cyber attacks by Russia’s military intelligence unit against 122 local election officials.
The Intercept cited the NSA report as anonymous. It is reported that Winner confessed to an FBI agent that she printed out the intelligence file and sent it to The Intercept.
FBI special agent Justin Garrick wrote that The Intercept came to the NSA with follow-up questions and produced the document Winner gave them. The NSA “examined the document shared by The Intercept and determined the pages of the intelligence reporting appeared to be folded and creased,” Garrick wrote, “suggesting that had been printed and hand-carried out of a secured space.”
Winner was hired by Pluribus International Corporation and held a top secret clearance. Pluribus’ top clients include the Defense Intelligence Agency, the US Army, and the US Central Command.
She has been charged under the Espionage Act. The Espionage Act is punishable with a sentence of up to 10 years. However, conventional leak cases have typically been dealt prison terms of one to three years.
The NSA conducted an internal audit and determined that six individuals printed the report. The NSA determined that Winner was the source of the leak when they discovered NSA correspondence between her and The Intercept.
None of the other five people who printed out the report had contact with any news agencies.
Responses so far
The deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein praised the operation. In a statement, Rosenstein said, “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.”
Vivian Siu, who is the director of communications at The Intercept, stated that The Intercept has no knowledge about where the classified document had come from.
Trump has been putting pressure on the Justice Department to crack down on leaks amid investigations to Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election. Winner is the first to face charges for releasing classified material, and her arrest could signal that the federal government is going to investigate intelligence leaks aggressively.
