Reality Winner | |
|---|---|
 Winner at the 2025 Texas Book Festival | |
| Born | Reality Leigh Winner (1991-12-04)December 4, 1991 (age 34) Alice, Texas, U.S.[1] |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Occupation | NSA translator |
| Employer | Pluribus International Corporation |
| Known for | Revealed classified NSA document aboutRussian interference in the 2016 United States elections |
| Criminal information | |
| Criminal status | Released |
| Conviction | Pleaded guilty to felony transmission of national defense information |
| Criminal charge | 18 U.S. Code § 793(e) – Gathering, transmitting or losing national defense information[2] |
| Penalty | Five years and three months in prison |
| Imprisoned at | Federal Medical Center, Carswell[3] |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Air Force |
| Service years | 2010–2016[4] |
| Rank | Senior airman (E-4)[4] |
| Unit | 94th Intelligence Squadron[4] |
| Awards | Air Force Commendation Medal |
Reality Leigh Winner (born December 4, 1991)[5][6] is aU.S. Air Force veteran and formerNSA translator. In 2018, she was given the longest prison sentence ever imposed for an unauthorized release of government classified information to the media[7] after she leaked an intelligence report aboutRussian interference in the 2016 United States elections.[8] She was sentenced to five years and three months in federal prison.[9]
On June 3, 2017, while employed by the military contractorPluribus International Corporation, Winner was arrested on suspicion ofleaking an intelligence report aboutRussian interference in the 2016 United States elections from theNational Security Agency (NSA) to the news websiteThe Intercept. The report indicated that Russian hackers accessedvoter registration records in the United States with an emailphishing operation.[10]
The Intercept's mishandling of the material exposed her as the source and led to her arrest.[11] Twice deniedbail, Winner was held at the Lincoln County Jail inLincolnton, Georgia.[12] On August 23, 2018, Winner was convicted ofespionage for "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 aplea deal.[13] She was incarcerated at theFederal Medical Center, Carswell inFort Worth, Texas, and released to a transitional facility on June 2, 2021.[14][15][16][17]
Winner was born in Texas to Billie and Ronald Winner. Her father chose her unusual name.[18] She grew up inKingsville, Texas, and attendedH. M. King High School, where she learned Latin at school, studiedArabic in her free time, and played on the soccer and tennis teams.[19]
Her father's influence early in her life had extensively shaped Winner's worldview on many topics, including politics, history, philosophy, and religion. After theSeptember 11 attacks, Winner had intense discussions with her father on geopolitics andIslam, and she decided to learn theArabic language.[18]
Winner served in theUnited States Air Force from 2010 to 2016, achieving the rank ofsenior airman (anE-4 paygrade) with the94th Intelligence Squadron.[18][4][20] After two years of language and intelligence training, she was posted toFort Meade, Maryland.[18] She worked as a linguist who spoke thePersian language as well asDari andPashto, the two official languages of Afghanistan.[21] Assigned to the drone program,[18] she listened in on intercepted foreign chatter to provide U.S. forces with intelligence.[22] Winner was awarded theAir Force Commendation Medal for "aiding in 650 enemy captures, 600 enemies killed in action and identifying 900 high value targets."[23]
A month after beinghonorably discharged from the Air Force in November 2016, Winner moved toAugusta, Georgia, where she taught at aCrossFit gym and a yoga studio.[18] Winner applied for jobs withNGOs inAfghanistan, hoping to use her Pashto language skills with refugees. However, her search for overseas employment was frustrated by her lack of post-secondary education.[18] Still possessing atop-secretsecurity clearance,[18] Winner was then hired by Pluribus International Corporation, a small firm[18] thatprovides services under contract to the National Security Agency.[24][25][26][27] On February 13, 2017, Pluribus assigned her to work atFort Gordon,[21] a U.S. Army post near Augusta, where she had once been stationed while in the Air Force.[18]
Assigned to translate foreign documents relating to Iran's aerospace program inPersian,[18] Winner was employed by Pluribus International Corporation at the time of her arrest.[29] Winner came across a single classified document which she subsequently anonymously mailed toThe Intercept.[30] Winner told CBS's60 Minutes that she leaked the classified material because she thought Americans were being intentionally misled about Russia'sactive measures to influence the outcome of the2016 United States presidential election.[31]
When FBI agents arrived at her home on June 3, 2017, Winner did not insist on consulting a lawyer, and the FBI agents failed to inform her of herMiranda rights when Winner was arrested.[30] When her house was searched and she was initially questioned, Winner stated that she was not "trying to be aSnowden or anything".[32]
TheDepartment of Justice announced her arrest on June 5.[33] She was detained even beforeThe Intercept published the article that was based upon the leaks.[34] TheIntercept report described Russian military attempts to interfere with the2016 presidential election byhacking a U.S. voting software supplier and by sendingspear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before the November 8 election.[35] The story was based upon a top secret May 5, 2017, National Security Agency (NSA) document leaked to them anonymously.[28]
Julian Assange, the founder ofWikiLeaks, called on the public to support Winner,[4] offering a $10,000 reward for information about a reporter forThe Intercept who had allegedly helped the U.S. government identify Winner as the leaker.[36] Assange wrote on Twitter that "Winner is noClapper orPetraeus with 'elite immunity'. She's a young woman against the wall for talking to the press."[37]
The Intercept sent copies of the documents to the NSA on May 30 to confirm their veracity, and the NSA notified theFBI. According toVice magazine, an FBI report said the documents "appeared to be folded and/or creased, suggesting they had been printed and hand-carried out of a secured space."[34] Through an internal audit, the NSA determined that Winner was one of six workers who had accessed the particular documents on its classified system, but only Winner's computer had been in contact withThe Intercept using a personal email account. On June 3, the FBI obtained a warrant to search Winner's electronic devices, and she was subsequently arrested.[38]
Both journalists and security experts have suggested thatThe Intercept's handling of the documents, which included publishing the documents unredacted and including theprinter tracking dots, was used to identify Winner as the leaker.[39][40] In October 2020,The Intercept's co-founding editorGlenn Greenwald wrote that Winner had sent her documents toThe Intercept's New York newsroom with no request that any specific journalist work on them. He called her exposure a "deeply embarrassing newsroom failure" resulting from "speed and recklessness," for which he was publicly blamed "despite having no role in it." He said editor-in-chiefBetsy Reed "oversaw, edited, and controlled that story."[41] An internal review conducted byThe Intercept into its handling of the document provided by Winner found that its "practices fell short of the standards to which we hold ourselves".[7]
NSA whistleblowerJohn Kiriakou andGuantanamo Bay detention camp whistleblower Joseph Hickman have also both accused Matthew Cole—the same reporter accused of revealing Winner's identity—of playing a role in their exposure, which, in Kiriakou's case, led to imprisonment.[42][43]
Winner was charged with "removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet."[44] On June 8, 2017, she pleaded not guilty to a charge of "willful retention and transmission of national defense information" and was deniedbail. Prosecutors alleged she may have been involved in other leaks of classified information, and might try to flee the country if released.[38][45] Justice Department lawyers also argued that her defense team should not be allowed to discuss any classified information, even if it was in news reports published by the media.[46][47]
TheU.S. magistrate judge who presided over Winner's bail hearing,Brian Epps, said, "She seems to have a fascination with the Middle East and Islamic terrorism," and quoted her writing: "It's a Christlike vision to have a fundamentalist Islamic state."[38] Federal agents had found her diary during a search of her home, in which she allegedly expressed support forTaliban leaders andOsama bin Laden, and for burning down theWhite House.[38] However, one of the prosecutors at her bail hearing said, "The government is not in any way suggesting the defendant has become a jihadist or that she is a Taliban sympathizer."[48]
On August 29, 2017, Winner's attorneys filed a motion in district court to suppress her statements to law enforcement, arguing that Winner was not read herMiranda rights before being interrogated by the FBI on June 3.[49] On October 5, 2017, Epps denied a second request from her defense attorneys that bail be set.[50] In December 2017,The Intercept reported that Winner's defense team was allowed to discuss the case with her, including its classified aspects, in aSensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF).[51]First Look, the parent company ofThe Intercept, helped fund her defense,[52] and as of September 2020[update] was still paying her legal bills.[16]
On January 31, 2018, theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court order blocking Winner from posting bond, determining that no combination of conditions would reasonably assure her presence at trial, thus ensuring that she remained in jail until her trial,[53] which was scheduled to begin on October 15, 2018.[54]
A "Stand with Reality" campaign was formed by representatives fromCourage to Resist, theElectronic Frontier Foundation, and theFreedom of the Press Foundation with the goal of "raising public awareness" to ensure that Reality Winner received a fair trial.[55] Billie Winner-Davis, mother of Reality Winner, called on members of the public to join the campaign.[56]
On June 21, 2018, Winner asked the court to allow her to change her plea to guilty.[57] On June 26, she pled guilty to one count offelony transmission of national defense information.[58][59] Winner's plea agreement with prosecutors called for her to serve five years and three months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.[60] No one has ever received a longer sentence for leaking classified information to a media outlet.[30]
On August 23, 2018, Winner was sentenced to the agreed-upon five years and three months in prison for violating theEspionage Act of 1917. Prosecutors said her sentence, 63 months in prison, was the longest ever imposed in federal court for an unauthorized release of government information to the media.[9] At her sentencing, Winner told the judge, "My actions were a cruel betrayal of my nation's trust in me."[61]The New York Times reported, "Under the plea agreement, Ms. Winner will be transferred to theFederal Bureau of PrisonsFederal Medical Center, Carswell inFort Worth, Texas, where she can receive treatment forbulimia and be relatively close to her family."[9]
On August 24, 2018, PresidentDonald Trump tweeted, "Ex-NSA contractor to spend 63 months in jail over 'classified' information. Gee, this is 'small potatoes' compared to whatHillary Clinton did! So unfairJeff, Double Standard." Winner expressed appreciation for Trump's support, saying, "I can't thank him enough."[62] Titus Nichols, Winner's lawyer, called the tweet "bizarre" and that it was just Trump "taking aim at Jeff (Attorney General Jeff Sessions)".[63] On August 31, Winner said that she would ask Trump for clemency as a result of his tweet, adding that her legal team was already working on her pardon application.[64]
On April 24, 2020, a federal judge rejected Winner's request to commute the remaining 19 months of her 63-month sentence and be released to home confinement due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[65] Winner's lawyer argued that her history of respiratory illness and immune system compromised by bulimia makes her highly vulnerable to the virus. Two inmates had tested positive before Winner was transferred to thefederal medical center[66] where, under the terms of her June 2018 guilty plea agreement,[9] Winner was housed to meet her special needs. She was immediately quarantined and never entered the general population there. The government insisted that theBureau of Prisons (BOP) "has taken aggressive action to mitigate the danger and is taking careful steps to protect inmates' and BOP staff members' health."[66] The judge found that Winner did not exhaust her administrative remedies through the BOP, which he held has sole authority to grant hercompassionate release.[65] Winner tested positive for COVID-19 in July 2020.[67] By September 13, 2020, Winner was recovering from the coronavirus, although still experiencing occasional shortness of breath.[16]
On June 2, 2021, Winner was transferred from prison to a transitional facility,[68] theSan Antonio, Texas, Residential Reentry Management center. According to Alison Grinter Allen, Winner's lawyer, she left prison early as a result of "good behavior" while inside, and not because of compassionate release.
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In 2019,Tina Satter staged the playIs This a Room, based on the transcript of Winner's interview by the FBI.[69][70][71]Is This A Room was given its Dutch premiere at the 2019 Noorderzon Festival in Groningen in the Netherlands,[72] and was further presented in New York City at theVineyard Theatre later that year.[73]Is This A Room ran on Broadway at theLyceum Theater, opening on October 10, 2021, and closing November 27.[74] Winner was not involved with the production during its initial Off-Broadway run and was unable to see the Broadway production due to still being under house arrest, but spoke with the creative team extensively following her release from prison and video-called into the opening night performance's curtain call.[75]
On March 29, 2019, American rock bandSon Volt released their ninth studio albumUnion, which contains the track "Reality Winner," whose lyrics directly allude to Winner's plight.[76] An excerpt fromIs This a Room was aired in the March 13, 2020, episode ofThis American Life.[77] A documentary film,Reality Winner, directed bySonia Kennebeck, premiered atSouth by Southwest festival in March 2021.[78] Her story was featured in the April 21, 2021, episode of theTBS seriesFull Frontal with Samantha Bee.[79] It was also featured in the December 5, 2021, episode of theCBS series60 Minutes.[80][81] On May 29, 2023,HBO releasedReality, a film adaptation ofIs This a Room, starringSydney Sweeney as Winner alongsideJosh Hamilton andMarchánt Davis. Tina Satter and James Paul Dallas adapted the script, with Satter directing in her feature debut.[82] The film premiered at theBerlin International Film Festival in February 2023.[83]
In 2024,Susanna Fogel directed a biographical black comedy film about Winner's life titledWinner, based on a screenplay byKerry Howley, withEmilia Jones portraying Winner.[84][85][86]
Winner's memoir,I Am Not Your Enemy, was published bySpiegel & Grau in September 2025.[87]
BOP Register Number: 22056-021
Ms. Winner's apparent Twitter feed, which used a pseudonym but had a photo of her and the same account name as her Instagram feed, makes clear her hostility toward Mr. Trump. That suggests a possible motive for leaking: highlighting Russian hacking of election-related targets, amplifying the narrative that Mr. Trump's victory is tainted.
The government announced Reality Leigh Winner's arrest Monday, about an hour afterThe Intercept reported that it had obtained a top-secret National Security Agency report about Russia's interference.
Winner's posts deriding President Trump likely wouldn't trigger interest from NSA personnel unless someone complained, experts said. And even if someone did, deciding whether to take some action would be a difficult call, they said.
As Winner's story unfolded this week, reporters from major networks and newspapers across the country descended here. But few people attached to the military installation would talk on the record. The NSA declined to comment. Local government officials were also tight-lipped.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
