Reality Winner pleads not guilty in NSA leaking case

Reality Leigh Winner, the 25-year-old NSA contractor accused of leaking a classified document, entered a not-guilty plea during her first court appearance yesterday. Federal prosecutors have charged her with gathering, transmitting or losing defense information, a felony offense under the Espionage and Censorship Act. A U.S. District Court judge granted their request to keep Winner behind bars because she presents a flight risk and might still possess classified material. The judge also expressed concern over some notebook entries Winner made, including one in which she said she wanted to “burn the White House down” and flee to Kurdistan. Winner joined the Air Force after high school and spent six years as a linguist, learning Arabic and Farsi. Prosecutors do not believe Winner became radicalized during her time in Afghanistan. She reportedly confessed to an FBI agent after her arrest, saying she was “mad about what she had recently seen in the media” and “wanted to set the facts right.” Government lawyers have not specified what Winner leaked, but her arrest came shortly after news website the Intercept posted an NSA report detailing Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

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