Woman accused of leaking intel
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Before she was charged with leaking U.S. government secrets to a reporter, Reality Leigh Winner shared sometimes scathing opinions on President Donald Trump and his policies.
The 25-year-old U.S. government contractor has worked since February in Augusta, Ga., for a federal agency where she had access to sensitive documents.
But the secretive nature of her job didn’t stop Winner from speaking freely on politics and other topics on social media accounts accessible to anyone.
She posted on Facebook three months ago that climate change is a more important issue than health care “since not poisoning an entire population seems to be more in line with ‘health’ care, and not the disease care system that people voted for a soulless ginger orangutan to ‘fix.’”
Winner remained locked up on federal charges that she made copies of classified documents containing top-secret material and mailed them to an online news organization. She was scheduled to appear before a federal judge today for a detention hearing.
Asked if Winner had confessed, Titus Thomas Nichols, Winner’s defense attorney, said, “If there is a confession, the government has not shown it to me.”