Reality Winner, imprisoned for leaking classified report, calls case against Trump ‘incredibly ironic’

KINGSVILLE, Texas — Reality Winner, a former intelligence contractor who served more than four years in prison for leaking a classified report on Russian interference within the 2016 presidential election, says she finds the allegations that former President Donald Trump mishandled secret government documents as an “extremely ironic” predicament on condition that it was his administration that sought to aggressively prosecute her.

But on whether or not Trump needs to be charged beneath the Espionage Act or face punishment as she did, Winner informed NBC News that she would not suppose he ought to go to jail primarily based on the proof made public up to now.

“What I did once I broke the regulation was a political act at a really politically charged time,” Winner, 30, mentioned from her dwelling close to Corpus Christi, Texas.

She added that it “wasn’t exhausting to imagine” Trump may need had a cache of classified paperwork saved at his Mar-a-Lago property, because the Department of Justice is now investigating.

“It is extremely ironic, and I’d simply let the Justice Department kind it out,” she mentioned.

Her extra restrained view surrounding the previous president, whose administration took a hard line on going after people accused of nationwide safety leaks, comes nearly 15 months since she was released from prison in June 2021 to a midway home resulting from good conduct. Winner was sentenced in 2018 to greater than 5 years on a single depend of transmitting nationwide safety data — then the longest federal jail sentence imposed for leaks to the information media.

Winner had been working for nationwide safety contractor Pluribus International at Fort Gordon in Georgia when prosecutors say she smuggled out a classified report in her pantyhose detailing the Russian authorities’s efforts to pierce a Florida-based voting software program provider forward of the 2016 presidential election. That data was later reported by The Intercept news outlet.

Winner mentioned she was motivated to behave on a perception that the American public wasn’t getting the complete fact.

When Trump was nonetheless in workplace, Winner’s legal professionals sought to get her sentence commuted. He had tweeted that her punishment was “so unfair,” and was “‘small potatoes’ in comparison with what Hillary Clinton did,” referencing a federal investigation into her use of a personal e-mail server whereas she was secretary of state. (The FBI in 2016 in the end decided Clinton had committed no crime in her dealing with of classified data.)

Winner mentioned she is on probation till November 2024, and stays prohibited from touring out of southern Texas, should adhere to a nightly curfew and report any interplay with the media.

She says her expertise out and in of jail has allowed her to replicate on her actions. On one hand, she believes she was a scapegoat, citing how the FBI director beneath Trump, James Comey, recalled in a memo that he informed the president “in regards to the worth of placing a head on a pike as a message” to leakers of classified data. Prosecutors on the time additionally tried to color Winner as any person who might have been sympathetic to anti-American sentiments after they mentioned they discovered handwritten notes in her dwelling, together with one saying, “I wish to burn the White House down.”

“I used to be a really introspective particular person,” Winner mentioned. “I wrote down my ideas. I did not act on my ideas and I’d learn them later and snigger at them.”

But Winner additionally acknowledges that she broke the regulation and mentioned she would not do what she did once more. Instead, she mentioned, she would have gone by way of “correct channels” to boost her considerations as a whistleblower.

“I’ve apologized and I’m at present serving that sentence. However, I used to be handled very harshly and I do not want that on anyone,” she mentioned, including, “When we see this investigation occurring, and the search warrant executed out of the previous president’s dwelling or his property, it is a variety of hypothesis, and I’d sit again and let the Department of Justice do what it must do.”

Winner mentioned she considers the appliance of the Espionage Act inconsistent and obscure, and that it leaves an excessive amount of leeway for the federal district that has jurisdiction over a case to find out if “nationwide protection data” was really jeopardized.

Derek Bambauer, a University of Arizona regulation professor specializing in mental property, agreed that the World War I-era regulation is “badly in want of updating.”

“The concern is that the present, reasonably broad language confers far an excessive amount of discretion upon prosecutors,” he mentioned.

The regulation, he added, needs to be clearer about what is taken into account prohibited conduct whereas constructing in free speech safeguards for individuals engaged in whistleblower actions.

“There’s clearly an essential distinction between displaying a redacted model of a doc or an evaluation of a state of affairs to a journalist or an legal professional versus promoting technical particulars of, say, submarine propulsion methods to a overseas nation,” Bambauer mentioned.

The regulation additionally would not require {that a} doc be technically thought-about “classified” to fall beneath its scope — the data solely must be associated to nationwide protection and be retained or disclosed with out authorization.

In July, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky reintroduced a bill beneath the Espionage Act to reaffirm First Amendment protections for journalists who publish classified data offered by whistleblowers.

Some of the latest high-profile instances of Espionage Act violations have concerned people accused of leaking information, and never spying, which Winner factors to as examples for why she says the regulation is “flawed.”

Since leaving jail, Winner mentioned, she has labored on her psychological and non secular well being, develop into a CrossFit coach and advocates for reworking the carceral system in order that jail isn’t the default for those that commit crimes. For an individual of energy, reminiscent of a former president, the flexibility to deal with them in jail safely turns into particularly tough, she added.

“This isn’t a case the place I anticipate to see any jail time,” Winner mentioned of the accusations involving Trump, “and I’m simply fantastic with that.”

Gabe Gutierrez and Kayla McCormick reported from Kingsville, and Erik Ortiz from New York.