Woman who passed NSA document to the press gets 5 years in prison

Reality Winner has been sentenced to five years in prison for leaking classified information to the media. The woman sent a confidential NSA document about Russian interference in the US to The Intercept last year.

Prosecutors say it is the longest sentence ever imposed in the US for a federal offense related to leaking to the press. That writes the Associated Press. The sentence is in line with what the defense and prosecutors had agreed in exchange for a confession.

Winner has been in custody for a year. The judge rejected a request to release the woman on bail, because there would be a risk of flight and Winner could have stolen more documents. The woman had never been in contact with the law before.

She was arrested a year ago on suspicion of passing an NSA document to the site The Intercept. Winner was then working as an external government employee at Pluribus International, and in her role as translator from Persian to English had access to confidential intelligence documents. The document contained information about Russian military intelligence GRO meddling in US elections. The NSA had evidence that GRO was conducting phishing campaigns against a US election software and equipment company and election officials, the document said.

An illustration from the document