AUGUSTA, GA — Reality Winner, the Georgia woman and government contractor who pleaded guilty to leaking government secrets regarding Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, was sentenced on Thursday to five years and three months in prison. It’s the longest sentence ever for a federal crime involving leaking to the news media, NBC reports.
U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall could have ignored the plea deal and given Winner, 26, the maximum sentence of 10 years, but he accepted the deal presented by prosecutors. In addition to the prison time, her sentence includes a three-year probationary period and a $100 fee, but no fine.
“The agreement reflects a fair resolution of the defendant’s criminal culpability, especially when balanced against the further harm to the national security that would likely result from a trial,” the prosecutors said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Winner said in an FBI interview she “screwed up royally” when she tucked a classified report into her pantyhose and smuggled it out of a National Security Agency office in Georgia, according to court documents.
Click Here: new zealand rugby team jerseys
Winner sent a copy of the top secret document on Russian interference to the Intercept, an investigative news website, which wrote an article based on it. The publication called the May 5, 2017, document the “most detailed U.S. government account of Russian interference in the election that has yet come to light.”
The U.S. government defines top secret information as that which, if known by the wrong people or organizations, could cause “exceptionally grave damage” to national security.
The Intercept published this quote from the top secret document:
Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate actors … executed cyber espionage operations against a named U.S. company in August 2016, evidently to obtain information on elections-related software and hardware solutions. … The actors likely used data obtained from that operation to … launch a voter registration-themed spear-phishing campaign targeting U.S. local government organizations.
Winner entered the courtroom smiling on Thursday, photos from the Journal-Constitution show. NBC reports she held her hands behind her back for much of the sentencing except when she spoke.
“I would like to apologize profusely for my actions. I want to apologize to my family. Nothing is worth time spent away from loved ones,” she said.
Winner had been an Air Force linguist prior to working as a contractor for the NSA.
See more:
Article image Sean Rayford/Getty Images News/Getty Images