Accused says she was frustrated
SAVANNAH, Ga. — A young woman charged with leaking U.S. secrets to a news organization told FBI agents she was frustrated with her job as a government contractor when she tucked a classified report into her pantyhose and smuggled it out of a National Security Agency office in Georgia, according to court records.
Prosecutors are using Reality Winner’s own words against her as they urge a federal judge to keep the former Air Force translator jailed until her trial. In a court filing Wednesday, prosecutors attached a 77-page transcript of Winner’s interview with FBI agents before her arrest in June.
“Yeah, I screwed up royally,” Winner, 25, told the agents in a transcript that makes public the details of her confession, which prosecutors have alluded to in prior court hearings.
In their latest filing Wednesday, prosecutors also included a partial transcript of a Facebook chat between Winner and her sister in February.
“Look, I only say I hate America like 3 times a day,” Winner wrote. “I’m no radical. It’s mostly just about Americans obsession with air conditioning.”
Her sister asked: “But you don’t actually hate America, right?”
Winner replied: “I mean yeah I do it’s literally the worst thing to happen on the planet. We invented capitalism the downfall of the environment.”
Winner faces up to 10 years in federal prison if she’s convicted on charges that she printed a classified U.S. report and mailed it to an online news outlet.
Authorities haven’t described the report or identified the news outlet. But the Justice Department announced Winner’s arrest as The Intercept reported it had obtained a classified NSA report suggesting Russian hackers attacked a U.S. voting software supplier before last year’s presidential election. The NSA report was dated May 5, the same as the document Winner is charged with leaking.
Winner told the FBI she was frustrated at her civilian contractor job, which involved translating documents from Farsi to English for the NSA in Augusta, Ga.
Defence attorneys say agents never read Winner her Miranda rights. She had not yet been formally arrested, but Winner’s attorneys say she had every reason to believe she was in custody. The judge has not ruled on that motion.