Well looky here, the FBI has caught itself a leaker!!
JUST IN: FBI has arrested and charged the woman they say leaked a Top Secret document to The Intercept, federal official tells NBC News.
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 5, 2017
She has a really weird name.
Meet Reality Leigh Winner. The 25-y-o was charged today with leaking top secret NSA report on Russian hacking to @theintercept pic.twitter.com/YhKk688LWJ
— The Smoking Gun (@tsgnews) June 5, 2017
Reality Winner?! Is that a codename for Trump!? Apparently she leaked to The Intercept a story that they published this morning – she was charged just hours after.
Federal Government Contractor in Georgia Charged With Removing and Mailing Classified Materials to a News Outlet https://t.co/DW4E6qefwY
— Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) June 5, 2017
From the statement:
A criminal complaint was filed in the Southern District of Georgia today charging Reality Leigh Winner, 25, a federal contractor from Augusta, Georgia, with removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 793(e).
Winner was arrested by the FBI at her home on Saturday, June 3, and appeared in federal court in Augusta this afternoon.
“Exceptional law enforcement efforts allowed us quickly to identify and arrest the defendant,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. “Releasing classified material without authorization threatens our nation’s security and undermines public faith in government. People who are trusted with classified information and pledge to protect it must be held accountable when they violate that obligation.”
According to the allegations contained in the criminal complaint:
Winner is a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation assigned to a U.S. government agency facility in Georgia. She has been employed at the facility since on or about February 13, and has held a Top Secret clearance during that time. On or about May 9, Winner printed and improperly removed classified intelligence reporting, which contained classified national defense information from an intelligence community agency, and unlawfully retained it. Approximately a few days later, Winner unlawfully transmitted by mail the intelligence reporting to an online news outlet.
Welp. She’s in big trouble if she’s found guilty. Ironically, Trump has said that news outlets don’t have any real leaks, that they just make up the false news…
UPDATE!!
It appears as if they caught the leaker because the people at the The Intercept stupidly handed the government the actual document they received.
According to the FBI affidavit, the news outlet outed its source when it provided the top secret doc to the gov't. for confirmation. pic.twitter.com/PowFcQ6xwc
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) June 5, 2017
Wow. They screwed up so bad.