NSA Contractor, Reality Winner, Charged With Leaking Docs; How She Was Caught Is Crazy

By Andrea Ruth | 7:45 PM on June 05, 2017

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FILE - In his June 6, 2013 file photo, the National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md. The leak of what purports to be a National Security Agency hacking tool kit has set the information security world atwitter — and sent major companies rushing to update their defenses. Experts across the world are still examining what amount to electronic lock picks. Here's what they've found so far. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

They’re not Trump’s taxes, but Chris Matthews ought to be gleeful to know leftists in the government are using their positions to leak classified information.

On Monday, The Intercept — a website known for publishing illegally leaked, sensitive information — published classified documents it received from an NSA contractor in Georgia that shows Russia’s efforts to hack American voting machines days before the 2016 election.

Russian military intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report obtained by The Intercept.

Government officials opened an investigation into the leak last week, but ultimately the culprit was inadvertently outed by The Intercept itself!

The affidavit suggests that investigators were only able to hunt down the culprit as a result of the news outlet’s handling of the information she allegedly provided. Rather than seeking to confirm only the contents of the trafficked information, the outlet apparently provided the actual documents to the federal government for review.

On Saturday, 25-year-old Reality Leigh Winner — an ironic name to have forever attached to Donald Trump’s presidency — was arrested at her home in Augusta, Georgia and charged with removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet.

According to the DOJ’s statement on the case, Reality Winner admitted to printing the classified intelligence and mailing it to a news outlet. The government has yet to confirm what news agency Winner sent the documents to.

Winner faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.