Reality Leigh Winner (born 1991) is an American U.S. Air Force veteran and former NSA translator. In 2018, she was given the longest prison sentence ever imposed for an unauthorized release of government information to the media after she leaked an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. She was sentenced to five years and three months in federal prison.
On June 3, 2017, while employed by the military contractor Pluribus International Corporation, Winner was arrested on suspicion of leaking an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections from the National Security Agency (NSA) to the news website The Intercept. The report indicated that Russian hackers accessed voter registration rolls in the United States with an email phishing operation, though it was unclear whether any changes had been made.
Concerns were raised that The Intercepts handling of the material exposed her as the source and contributed to her arrest. Twice denied bail, Winner was held at the Lincoln County Jail in Lincolnton, Georgia. On August 23, 2018, Winner was convicted of "removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet" and sentenced to five years and three months in prison as part of a plea deal. She was incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, and released to a transitional facility on June 2, 2021.
Early life
Winner was born in Texas to Billie and Ronald Winner. Her unusual name was chosen by her father. She grew up in Kingsville and attended H. M. King High School, where she learned Latin at school, studied Arabic in her free time, and played on the soccer and tennis teams.
Her father's influence early in her life had extensively shaped Winner's world view on many topics, including politics, history, philosophy, and religion. After the September 11 attacks, Winner had intense discussions with her father on geopolitics and Islam and she decided to learn the Arabic language.
Career
Winner served in the United States Air Force from 2010 to 2016, achieving the rank of senior airman (an E-4 paygrade) with the 94th Intelligence Squadron. After two years of language and intelligence training, she was posted to Fort Meade, Maryland. She worked as a cryptologic linguist, being fluent in the Persian language and in Dari, the Persian dialect spoken in Afghanistan, as well as in Pashto, the second official language of the country. Assigned to the drone program, she listened in on intercepted foreign chatter to provide U.S. forces with intelligence. Winner was awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal for "aiding in 650 enemy captures, 600 enemies killed in action and identifying 900 high value targets."
A month after being honorably discharged from the Air Force in November 2016, Winner moved to Augusta, Georgia, where she taught at a CrossFit gym and a yoga studio. Winner applied for jobs with NGOs in Afghanistan, hoping to use her Pashto language skills with refugees. However, her search for overseas employment was frustrated by her lack of post-secondary education. Still possessing a top-secret security clearance, Winner was then hired by Pluribus International Corporation, a small firm that provides services under contract to the National Security Agency. On February 13, 2017, Pluribus assigned her to work at Fort Gordon, a U.S. Army post near Augusta, where she had once been stationed while in the Air Force.
Release of classified document
Assigned to translate documents relating to Iran's aerospace program in Persian, Winner was employed by Pluribus International Corporation at the time of her arrest. It was in this position that she actively searched for classified reports on Russian election interference, despite such material being outside the scope of her security clearance, and ultimately came across the classified document that she subsequently anonymously mailed to The Intercept. Winner told CBS's 60 Minutes that she leaked the classified material because she thought Americans were being intentionally misled about Russia's active measures to influence the outcome of the 2016 United States presidential election.
Arrest
When FBI agents arrived at her home on June 3, 2017, Winner didn’t insist on consulting a lawyer, and the FBI agents failed to inform her of her Miranda rights when Winner was arrested. When her house was searched and she was initially questioned, Winner stated that she "wasn't trying to be a Snowden or anything".