DOJ Charges Federal Contractor With Leaking Classified Info To Media (thehill.com)

schwit1 quotes a report from The Hill: The Department of Justice charged 25-year-old government contractor Reality Leigh Winner with sharing top secret material with a media outlet, prosecutors announced in a press release Monday. Court documents filed by the government don't specify which media outlet received the materials allegedly leaked by Winner, but NBC News reported that the material went to the Intercept online news outlet. The Intercept published a top secret NSA report Monday that alleged Russian military intelligence launched a 2016 cyberattack on a voting software company. Details on the report published by The Intercept suggest that it was created on May 5, 2017 -- the same day prosecutors say the materials Winner is charged with sharing were created. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on whether Winner is accused of sharing the report published by the Intercept. Last month, Winner allegedly "printed and improperly removed classified intelligence reporting, which contained classified national defense information" before mailing the materials to an unnamed online news outlet a few days later, according to prosecutors.

Comments

Anti-Trump Sandersnista

[Anonymous Coward]

"Being white is terrorism".

How'd this idjit get a TS clearance?

Re:Anti-Trump Sandersnista

[CajunArson]

It's interesting how racists like that get TS clearances and would I'm sure have a free ride at Harvard after the admissions office spied on their social media accounts.

Interesting in a very bad way but interesting.

Re: Anti-Trump Sandersnista

[GLMDesigns]

Small government applies to the breadth of what the government does. Small government does not mean inept, in times of war (say WWII) it does not mean keeping taxes low or not paying soldiers. It means that government is limited - that does not have a role in say wage and price freezes (rent control); that it's function is not to redistribute wealth; etc...

You may agree or disagree with the positions - but you are simply making a straw man and digging yourself into an intellectual hole when you convince yourself of this bullsh!t.

Re:Anti-Trump Sandersnista

[Rei]

Infowars, really? You do realize that Alex Jones has admitted in court proceedings that he's just playing a character and doesn't actually believe the stuff he says, don't you?

The actual tweet is a reply to Kanye West: "@kanyewest you should make a shirt that says, "being white is terrorism"". Kanye West - the "George Bush doesn't care about black people" guy. The Obama hasn't accomplished as much as Bush because "...he ain't got those connections. Black people don't have the same level of connections as Jewish people...We ain't Jewish. We don't got family that got money like that." guy. The reason-he-lost-an-awards-show being "maybe my skin's not right" guy. A guy who's a living parody of himself.

And a guy who runs a fashion line. Hence the joke about the T-shirt.

Of course, to you people the problem isn't the fact that Russia not only launched an aggressive campaign against the public to shift the election, but also tried to compromise voting software and spearfish local election officials. No no, that's not the problem at all. The problem is that someone dared leak the fact that they did this. And that it's someone who doesn't like Trump - like most Americans. And oh my god, she also supports BLM, like the majority of people her age group - including white people in her age group. Clearly the problem isn't a major effort by a hostile power to compromise an election - it's that a person who agrees with the stances of the majority dared tell people about it! Damn her!

Why can't we get actionable leaks.

[jellomizer]

I personally think too much stuff is marked as classified which really shouldn't be. Because it is mostly common knowledge, we just don't have the details. However if you are going to leak classified info. Please leak in quality not quantity. I much rather see a report about a leak every few years about something really actionable. About some injustice that is only classified because it makes the ruling people look bad, and is something truly affecting ones conscious.

These little leaks in a state where we are ruled by a 12 year old in a 70 year old body. We are much better putting him in a state of false security where his overconfidence will lead to real mistakes and the leak can hit like a dagger. Vs a constant irritant .

Re:Why can't we get actionable leaks.

[Fire_Wraith]

Information (generally) isn't classified because the information is good - it's almost always because of the method used to collect it. The goal isn't necessarily to protect the information, so much as the means by which they got that information. I can't speak to the current situation, but that's usually the case with classification. It doesn't then matter if that's information about the next terrorist attack, or about what kind of toilet paper Abu Bad Guy prefers because it doesn't chafe his backside.

Having the Japanese Navy know that we're aware they plan to attack Midway is bad, but having them realize that means we're reading their coded transmissions is far, far worse. It means they'll change their codes, and we can't read them any more. If it was a human agent, it means that guy is probably going to get shot, or at the very least will have to run and won't be able to send any more reports.

So, a whistleblower, not a "deep state" anything

[squiggleslash]

When the leak came out the usual suspects trotted out the usual nonsense:

1. The NSA were clearly lying and these were bogus because Russia is our friend
2. This is obviously "the deep state" (ie management of the NSA, CIA, etc) trying to undermine Cheeto Mussolini with fake news. Sad!

...until Sessions announced he'd found the leaker and was pressing charges. And then, all of a sudden, we get the usual right-wing "background check" of the leaker, and she's an "SJW" (bad! Boo!) according to them, and she's a contractor, according to Sessions. The latter is actually the important bit, though it's amusing if she's also the leftyish owner of the Twitter account identified by the rightosphere.

What did the campaign against Winners prove? The docs are the real deal. The NSA does, actually, genuinely believe that the Russian state was actively trying to interfere with the election. They're not making that up. They have evidence - they're not sharing it with you but they have it. They're not trying to undermine anyone, no matter how awful they are. Hell, they're still trying to keep this stuff secret. They're actually trying to protect Trump from negative publicity.

As for Winners, the jokes - based upon her name - write themselves. But yes, she's the real deal. Sessions is confirming she leaked real NSA documents. The rightosphere is confirming she's not some high level intelligence official trying to orchestrate a coup. The NSA documents are legit: Russia interfered with the election.

Didn't exactly cover her tracks

[DrXym]

Printing out a document on an NSA printer, scanning that print out and releasing it to a shady Russian-front site. Now that's just dumb. Inkjets (not only ones in NSA buildings) can embed codes in their printouts and you'd better believe the NSA is going to have logs of who printed out what and when.

I guess we can thank her for confirming the NSA discovered Russian interference but most reasonable people would have known that already even if they weren't privy to the details. She'll probably end up in prison for 5-10 years over this.

Re:Didn't exactly cover her tracks

[Kohath]

Seems like printers are a lot more secure and their output a lot more traceable than voting machines.

Re: Looks like The Intercept may have outed her

[Anonymous Coward]

Snowden and Manning should be executed for treason.

The amount of work

[nehumanuscrede]

the government will put into adding credibility into a story is amazing.

Like I said in a different thread:

After what happened with Snowden, what do you think the odds are that a contractor can both obtain and distribute a NSA document at all without anyone from the NSA noticing ?

I have serious doubts about it and my initial thoughts are this is just the Government pushing the Evil Russians narrative vs the home grown ( DNC ) efforts to skew the election.

Because the former is expected and the latter undermines the trust in the overall US election process. Can't have that now can we ? Bad things happen in armed countries when the populace loses faith in the election systems.

Russia just happens to be a convenient scapegoat for anything that's wrong these days.

Even IF the NSA verifies the document and shows you the evidence they have, after the bullshit they have pulled recently with their surveillance programs, would you trust any of it ?

Dear NSA: That's the problem when you erode / destroy the public trust. When you have a real situation where you need folks to believe you, very few will.

If any at all.

At least, it is a coherent accusation

[mi]

How about, "prove it bitch?"

At least, the GP is offering a coherent accusation .

Which means, he is one step ahead of the folks demanding "Trump investigation" and "Russian connection". Those not only have no proof, but can't even state the charge...