Reality Winner, ex-NSA contractor accused of leaking secrets, pleads guilty to mishandling government documents
Under the terms of her plea agreement, Winner faces a likely sentence of 63 months in prison
A former National Security Agency contractor pleaded guilty on Tuesday to mishandling government secrets, as part of a plea deal in which she would serve about five years in prison.
Reality Winner, 26, was arrested a year ago after authorities alleged she gave a top-secret NSA document about Russian hackers targeting US election systems to a media outlet. People familiar with the case identified the outlet as The Intercept.
Reality Winner speaks four languages and really doesn’t like Donald Trump
The case marked the first criminal charges filed during the Trump administration against someone suspected of leaking government secrets to a journalist. Since then, three other individuals have been charged in leak-related investigations.
Prosecutors have said Winner, an Air Force veteran, was motivated by anger over public denials that Russia sought to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
Her mother, Billie Winner-Davis, spoke to reporters briefly outside the federal courthouse in Augusta, Georgia, after her daughter pleaded guilty to a single felony count of mishandling defence information.