In this case ‘reality’ truly did win as traitorous contractor Reality Winning’s efforts to hurt President Trump failed miserably.
Yesterday, news broke that the United States Justice Department had filed a criminal complaint against a federal contractor who worked for the National Security Agency. The ironically named Reality Leigh Winner, 25, was arrested by the FBI at her home in Augusta, Georgia and is accused of willfully retaining and transmitting classified national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it , in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 793(e).
According to the FBI’s affidavit from the application for Winner’s arrest warrant, Winner admitted to printing out classified documents she did not have a “need to know” for and then mailed the classified material to a news outlet she knew was not authorized to receive or possess said documents.
Even more damning, she admitted that she knew what the contents of the material she sent to a media outlet could be used to injure the United States and give advantage to a foreign nation. This is coming from a self-identified member of “the resistance” who claimed, without proof, that President Trump was the one breaking the law, conspiring with foreign governments, and betraying her country; this was all being claimed while she was actively committing the crimes she was accusing others of. In the most hilariously tragic outcome, reality did in fact win and none of the documents she leaked backed up her conspiracy theories.
This betrayal of her nation is made even more disturbing by the fact that she once served in the United States Air Force. Much like the veteran sentenced to jail last week for attempting to join ISIS, Reality Winner picked up some radical ideas along the way that allowed her to betray her nation. On February 25th, Winner tweeted at Kanye West, saying “being white is terrorism.”
@kanyewest you should make a shirt that says, "being white is terrorism"
— Sara Winners (@Reezlie) February 26, 2017
Not surprisingly, notorious racist and pathological liar Shaun King has called Winner “courageous” and stated that he stands with her. Shortly after leaving the United States military and two days before being assigned to her job with Pluribus International Corporation, her employer at the time of the stealing the classified information, Winner posted on Twitter that “the most dangerous entry to this country was the orange fascist we let into the white house.”
the most dangerous entry to this country was the orange fascist we let into the white house
— Sara Winners (@Reezlie) February 11, 2017
Despite that this was only one of her nine deranged tweets directed at President Trump (in addition to a slew of obsessive retweets of the same image), she was still employed as a contractor with a top-secret security clearance. In another unhinged moment, Winner tweeted directly at Jeff Sessions, saying he had been confirmed as “Confederate General” instead of Attorney General. It remains to be seen if Winner’s attorneys will try to insist that their client was mentally unstable and then submit these tweets as evidence.
@jeffsessions #Congrats on being confirmed as #ConfederateGeneral #SNLSessions
— Sara Winners (@Reezlie) February 13, 2017
However, given that she has retweeted content from Edward Snowden, as well as shared widely debunked leaks of Russian/Trump collusion, she may have a hard time convincing anyone that she didn’t know exactly what she was doing (no matter how delusional her beliefs may be).
Another disturbing trend that was seen in the weeks leading up to her employment that allowed her to steal classified information, was her open support of foreign governments who have declared themselves enemies of the United States.
On February 7th, 2017 Winner tweeted directly to the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, saying that “we” would support Iran if war broke out between the U.S. and Iran. This open support of Islamic Republic is of note, as according to Winner’s mother, Winner served as a linguist for the Air Force and was fluent in Farsi, Dari, and Pashto. Winner joined the Air Force in 2013 and served as an Airman First Class with the 94th Intelligence Squadron at Fort Meade, which also hosts the headquarters of the NSA.
There are many Americans protesting US govt aggression towards Iran. If our Tangerine in Chief declares war, we stand with you!
— Sara Winners (@Reezlie) February 7, 2017
Despite all of this experience working with and around the NSA, Winner was easily identified and arrested for her alleged crimes. According to the criminal complaint, Winner printed the classified intelligence reports on the 9th of May and mailed them to The Intercept several days later. On May 30th, The Intercept contacted the NSA about an upcoming story and stated their belief that they were in possession of Top Secret documents. When shown the documents, the government easily identified them as being printed out copies of the reports. After a short audit, the NSA was able to determine that only 6 people had printed this report, to include Winner. They were also able to determine that Winner had emailed The Intercept from her personal Gmail account from a work computer.
News of Winner’s arrest broke an hour after The Intercept published the story that featured the leaked documents. Additionally, experts were able to determine the source of the documents in other manners, as well as when they were printed out. This was accomplished simply by examining the images of the documents that The Intercept published. This demonstrates that The Intercept did nothing to protect their source either; she just happened to have already been caught via her own incompetence.
Winner has been charged under the Espionage Act for her alleged crimes. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison; she did not enter a plea at her initial court appearance. She is scheduled for a detention hearing on Thursday, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian Epps will determine whether or not Reality Winner can be released on bond.
