NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner Receives Longest Sentence Ever for
Unauthorized Disclosure
By Kevin Gosztola, Shadowproof
23 August 18
Former National Security Agency contractor Reality Winner was sentenced to
five years and three months in prison at a federal courthouse in Augusta,
Georgia. It was part of a plea agreement approved by the court, where Winner
admitted she disclosed classified information in violation of the Espionage
Act.
Winner will be incarcerated at Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort
Worth, Texas, primarily because she has been bulimic for 12 years. In a
statement read before the court, Winner said bulimia has been "a constant
struggle" for her and expressed fear that, if she wasn't incarcerated at a
medical facility, she could turn to bulimia as a coping mechanism. She also
suffers from depression after the death of her father in 2016, mere months
before the act for which she was prosecuted.
Additionally, Winner spoke about her motivations for learning the languages
and cultures of countries in the Middle East. Following the attacks on
September 11, she said she wanted to intellectually understand what had
happened. Her interest in language is what ultimately led her to her line of
work.
Defense attorney Joe Whitley described Winner's disclosure as a "poorly
considered act of political passion and protest" in an effort to ensure the
judge accepted the plea agreement.
After incarceration, Winner will be subject to three years of supervised
release. She will not be required to pay a fine. The judge also did not say
whether time served would be factored into her sentence.
Winner apologized in her statement and indicated she took full
responsibility for her action.
The plea agreement reflected the seriousness of the espionage defense, Judge
James Randal Hall said, adding the oft-heard refrain that it would promote
respect for the law.
Prosecutors claimed Winner's disclosure of the NSA report "caused
exceptionally grave damage to national security." However, that was never
proven during course of this case and in fact, prosecutors claimed it didn't
have to be proven to convict her of violating the Espionage Act.
In a statement after the hearing, Justice Department representatives
celebrated Winner's sentence as the longest ever for a defendant convicted
of making an unauthorized disclosure.
Winner was in the United States Air Force for six years. She is fluent in
Dari, Farsi, and Pashto and worked as a language analyst. When she left the
Air Force, she was employed by Pluribus International and worked for the NSA
at Fort Gordon.
She disclosed a copy of an intelligence report from the NSA that alleged
Russian hackers targeted voter registration systems during the 2016
election. It was provided to the Intercept, which made several mistakes
related to source protection that led authorities to identify Winner as the
person who gave the report to the media outlet.
Winner was arrested on June 3, 2017, after FBI agents raided her home. In a
small back room in her home, agents controlled her movements, never told her
she was "free to leave," nor did they inform her she had the right to remain
silent. The FBI successfully induced a confession that agents recorded.
(What happened during the raid was challenged by defense attorneys through a
motion to suppress statements, but ultimately, no ruling on the motion was
ever issued by the court.)
She was denied bail. Prosecutors used her service and training in the Air
Force against her to make the case she would flee if she was not kept in
prison. They also promoted the idea that Winner had no respect for the U.S.
government and persuaded the court (as well as an appeals court) that she
may be some kind of disloyal American.
For one year and 83 days, she was detained at Lincolnton County Jail. There
she was assaulted by a state inmate. Her mental health deteriorated, as a
psychologist was hired to help her with depression. Her struggle with an
eating disorder worsened because the jail did not or would not accommodate
her diet.
A trial was scheduled and postponed at least two times before her attorneys
recognized it would be nearly impossible for her to defend herself in court.
For example, her defense was hindered significantly when the court rejected
40 out of 41 subpoenas that were requested so evidence could be compiled to
possibly show the government had not taken appropriate steps to protect
information in the NSA report.
A sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, was setup at the
courthouse in Augusta for Winner to meet with her attorneys and work on her
defense. Throughout this part of her case, she was routinely dehumanized, as
she was shackled 12 hours each day. The shackles were at her waist so she
could not drink a water bottle with her own hands.
When she wanted to use the bathroom, according to her mother, Billie
Winner-Davis, officers would do a "complete strip search on her." Any time
she was "taken from the SCIF to return to jail," they did a strip search on
her.
Humiliating and degrading strip searches served the purpose of domination
and ensured Winner would recognize who was in control over her.
She changed her plea from not guilty to guilty on June 26 and acknowledged
in court the elements of the offense, which prosecutors brought against her.
Her sentence for violating the Espionage Act is extraordinary, particularly
when compared to sentences issued in other leak prosecutions. Yet, it is
representative of the extent to which the government will go to make
examples out of whistleblowers.
There is no public interest defense available to individuals charged under
the Espionage Act, a World War I-era law that is antiquated. It forces a
person who reveals information potentially of publicly value to defend their
act in terms of whether they are guilty of betraying the country or not. It
was not initially used to punish sources and control the flow of information
to the press, and yet, especially since President Barack Obama's
administration, the Justice Department has relied on the law to expand its
ability to silence national security whistleblowers.
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