By Tessa Stuart. One of the first things Reality Winner did when she was released from federal prison in June was start building a paddock for a horse named Trouble, and a small shed for her gym equipment beside it. Winner, a former NSA contractor, was training for a powerlifting competition when she was arrested in June , accused of leaking classified information to The Intercept. When the FBI showed up at her house that day, her main preoccupation was getting her perishable groceries into the fridge and figuring out who would feed her cat and foster dog if she came in for questioning.
My life is perfect right now. For the next three years, Winner, who had her court-mandated ankle monitor removed on Tuesday, will still be on probation, which means mandatory drug tests every two weeks, a 10 p. One was serving time for a gun charge she got while trafficking drugs for an Aryan gang, the other did 11 years for armed robbery. Winner was just 25 years old when she printed a single classified document — one that described Russian military efforts to spear-phish dozens of local election officials ahead of the election — smuggled it out of the NSA facility where she worked and mailed it to The Intercept.
For comparison, Edward Snowden provided at least 10, documents to, among others, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, who later went on to co-found The Intercept. The NSA has claimed he took more than 1. Winner was ultimately sentenced to sixty-three months in prison for the leak, the longest prison term ever imposed for an unauthorized release of government information to the media. The Intercept was widely criticized for its handling of the document Winner leaked—in particular, the decision to show the leaked document to the U.
While attempting to verify its authenticity with the NSA, an Intercept reporter inadvertently revealed its provenance. According to an FBI affidavit , the document had a telltale crease in it, indicating it had been printed and folded. An FBI agent assigned to the case would later testify that a total of six people had printed the document.
I was just angry at the whole system… Of course First Look Media fell behind. You know what I mean? Fuck them. He wants to hide out in Brazil on his private beach or whatever. I knew what I was doing, I faced the consequences. Over her four years in prison, Winner says she was abused by a female prison guard, developed and kicked a drug habit, and contracted and recovered from a case Covid For now, Winner is more focused on rebuilding her life than reliving the past six years.
