Reality Leigh Winner, the 25-year-old intelligence contractor who is being charged with leaking to the press classified information on Russian efforts to hack U.S. voting machines, allegedly sympathized with terrorist leaders, wanted to burn down the White House, and mishandled classified information during her time in the military.
After searching Winner’s home, government officials found Winner’s hand-written notes: “I want to burn the White House down . . . find somewhere in Kurdistan to live,” she wrote in one note. In other notes, Winner sympathized with Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour.
As Jim Geraghty wrote in this morning’s Morning Jolt: “Dear National Security Agency, if somebody like Reality Winner got through your interview process, who the heck are you not hiring?”
The prosecution also found evidence leading them to believe that Winner had leaked classified information in the past. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Solari, “This was not the first time” that Winner mishandled classified information. Solari alleged that there is reason to believe that, while on active duty in the Air Force, Winner stole classified information through a USB drive; the USB drive in question has yet to be recovered.
