Air Force Vet Turned NSA Leaker Reality Winner Receives Record-Setting Prison Sentence

[rangerrebew]

Air Force Vet Turned NSA Leaker Reality Winner Receives Record-Setting Prison Sentence
By Jeremy Redmon, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
on August 23, 2018


Reality Winner on Thursday received a record-setting prison sentence — five years and three months behind bars — for leaking a top-secret government report about Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

“I sincerely apologize and take full responsibility for my actions,” the former National Security Agency contractor told Chief U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall in a federal court in Augusta. “In particular, I want to apologize to my family.”

https://taskandpurpose.com/nsa-leaker-reality-winner-sentence/

[Night Hides Not]

Air Force Vet Turned NSA Leaker Reality Winner Receives Record-Setting Prison Sentence
By Jeremy Redmon, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
on August 23, 2018


Reality Winner on Thursday received a record-setting prison sentence — five years and three months behind bars — for leaking a top-secret government report about Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

“I sincerely apologize and take full responsibility for my actions,” the former National Security Agency contractor told Chief U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall in a federal court in Augusta. “In particular, I want to apologize to my family.”

https://taskandpurpose.com/nsa-leaker-reality-winner-sentence/

Her parents should apologize to her for naming her "Reality".

[dfwgator]

Reality Bites.

[catfish1957]

Reality Bites.

lol.... After reading headline I thought it was an AF vet, who won on some reality. TV show.

[RetBobbyMI]

Got what she deserves. Now what about Shillery and her national security malfeasance

[Concerned]

I don't think 5 years and 3 months is anywhere near enough.

[sneakypete]

Got what she deserves. Now what about Shillery and her national security malfeasance

@RetBobbyMI

Some criminals really are "too big to bust",in more ways than one.

[sneakypete]

I don't think 5 years and 3 months is anywhere near enough.

@Concerned

That depends on the seriousness of the info she revealed. Was it just embarrassing,or was it harmful to the nation,as well as a risk to the lives of CIA agents in the field?

If it was just embarrassing,5 years is appropriate. If it was more serious,life in prison or death.

[Sanguine]

Maybe I'm just overly sensitive, but the fact that she "received a record-setting prison sentence...for leaking a top-secret government report about Russian meddling in the 2016 election" is sort of odd. 

Winner, the prosecutors said, mailed a copy of an NSA document to The Intercept, an online publication. The Intercept published an article based on the report, saying Russian military intelligence sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials and launched a cyberattack against a Florida-based voting software supplier that contracts in eight states.

Why would this be such a sensitive thing to leak?

[sneakypete]

Maybe I'm just overly sensitive, but the fact that she "received a record-setting prison sentence...for leaking a top-secret government report about Russian meddling in the 2016 election" is sort of odd. 

Why would this be such a sensitive thing to leak?

@Sanguine

Because it made the Russians aware that the US knew what they were doing,and as a result,would be running a counter-intel operation against them. Not only that,but there is no way the Russians could do this with us aware of it without them losing covert assets.

Counter Espionage is a very big-time deal.

[Concerned]

@Concerned

That depends on the seriousness of the info she revealed. Was it just embarrassing,or was it harmful to the nation,as well as a risk to the lives of CIA agents in the field?

If it was just embarrassing,5 years is appropriate. If it was more serious,life in prison or death.

I doubt it risks CIA agents in the field since it was a NSA-developed document, but The Intercept info did include information from Top Secret documents that described that "RUSSIAN MILITARY INTELLIGENCE executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report obtained by The Intercept."   It most probably jeopardized some sources and methods since it gave the Russians a heads up as to the type of information that we can gather in exposing their cyber spear-phising efforts. 

Regardless, when you pledge you'll never release TS and TS/SCI information to unauthorized sources, you shouldn't do it, and I'd like to see severe penalities made against anyone who refuses to honor that pledge that they themselves made and chose to violate.

https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/top-secret-nsa-report-details-russian-hacking-effort-days-before-2016-election/

[sneakypete]

..  It most probably jeopardized some sources and methods since it gave the Russians a heads up as to the type of information that we can gather in exposing their cyber spear-phising efforts. 

@Concerned
 I would say "almost certainly". The uncertainty is based on the fact that the Russians might have already known about it from bribed US politicians.

Regardless, when you pledge you'll never release TS and TS/SCI information to unauthorized sources, you shouldn't do it, and I'd like to see severe penalities made against anyone who refuses to honor that pledge that they themselves made and chose to violate.

Speaking as someone who used to hold a TS/Crypto and code word security clearance,I can't argue with that. IIRC,being turned into a toad was one of the milder threats that were standard.
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/top-secret-nsa-report-details-russian-hacking-effort-days-before-2016-election/

[Sanguine]

@Sanguine

Because it made the Russians aware that the US knew what they were doing,and as a result,would be running a counter-intel operation against them. Not only that,but there is no way the Russians could do this with us aware of it without them losing covert assets.

Counter Espionage is a very big-time deal.

I understand that, Pete.  I just wonder if it's us that they didn't want to know about the phising.

[sneakypete]

I understand that, Pete.  I just wonder if it's us that they didn't want to know about the phising.

@Sanguine

Good question. My only suggestion is to flip a coin. You are as likely to be right or wrong regardless of how it lands. The intelligence and counter intelligence worlds make Alice in Wonderland look like Leave it to Beaver by comparison. You,or anyone else,can go insane once you start focusing on "yeah,but,on the other hand....." probabilities/possibilities.