NSA Leaker, Reality Winner, Will Soon See Her Day in Court

Remember the dullard that took home classified information from her job as a NSA contractor and forwarded it on to an internet news site, only to be arrested on the same day the information was released?

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Reality Winner, possessor of what is possibly the most unfortunate name for a future inmate in recent history, will get her day in court in October of this year, according to CNN.

Among the possible evidence in the government’s case against former federal contractor Reality Winner is a notebook with information handwritten in Farsi, prosecutors said in court Tuesday.

The writing is being translated, federal prosecutors told a judge at a hearing.

Winner, who is accused on one count of taking classified information home from work and leaking it to a media outlet, remains in jail awaiting an anticipated October 23 trial.

She has pleaded not guilty.

I don’t get the plea. The initial reports are that she admitted she did it. She was one of six who had access to the material, several indicators point to her account with the agency as having accessed the material.

And then there are the recorded jailhouse calls, and her strategy to play the “cute white girl” act, in order to get the sympathy nod.

Winner worked as a linguist while she was with the U.S. Air Force, from 2010 to 2016, and speaks several languages: Farsi, Pashto, and Dari.

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Prosecutors are building a wider case against her, than simply the single charge she’s currently faced with.

Authorities are also examining two laptops, a tablet and four cellphones seized from Winner’s home in Augusta, and are reviewing an interview she gave the FBI before her arrest earlier this month.

The 25-year-old federal contractor was charged with leaking information regarding a 2016 Russian military intelligence cyberattack to The Intercept.

The attack in question had to deal with an attack on a U.S. voting software supplier. No votes were affected by the attack, as far as any information shows.

US Magistrate Judge Brian Epps said a classified information security officer will be involved in the pretrial discovery.

Carli Rodriguez-Feo, of the Justice Department’s Litigation Security Group, will help with motions and orders connected to classified documents, the judge said.

“The primary purpose of the protective order is just to create parameters for us, so that if there’s any type of information that is classified at any level, everyone knows what the rules of engagement will be,” Nichols told CNN affiliate WRDW after the hearing.

Attorneys should receive security clearance by August 25, Epps added.

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You have to wonder just how much thought Winner put into her plan. She was found out and arrested pretty quickly.

There was no clear motive, other than to insert herself into the ongoing Russia probe, with hopes of standing anonymously on the sidelines and admiring her handiwork.

The charge, willful retention and transmission of national defense information, could bring Winner up to 10 years in prison. She could also face a fine of up to $250,000.

In other words, she ruined her life for a cheap ego rush.

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