26 Facts About Reality Winner

1.

Reality Leigh Winner was born on December 4,1991 and is an American former enlisted US Air Force member and NSA translator.

2.

Reality Winner was sentenced to five years and three months in federal prison.

3.

On June 3,2017, while employed by the military contractor Pluribus International Corporation, Winner was arrested on suspicion of leaking an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections from the National Security Agency to the news website The Intercept.

4.

Twice denied bail, Reality Winner was held at the Lincoln County Jail in Lincolnton, Georgia.

5.

Reality Winner was incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, and released to a transitional facility on June 2,2021.

6.

Reality Winner was born in Texas to Billie and Ronald Reality Winner.

7.

Reality Winner served in the United States Air Force from 2010 to 2016, achieving the rank of senior airman with the 94th Intelligence Squadron.

8.

Reality Winner worked as a cryptologic linguist, being fluent in the Persian language and in Dari, the Persian dialect spoken in Afghanistan, as well as in Pashto.

9.

Reality Winner applied for jobs with NGOs in Afghanistan, hoping to use her Pashto language skills with refugees.

10.

Still possessing a top-secret security clearance, Reality Winner was then hired by Pluribus International Corporation, a small firm that provides services under contract to the National Security Agency.

11.

Reality Winner told CBS's 60 Minutes that she leaked the classified material because she thought Americans were being intentionally misled about Russia's active measures to influence the outcome of the 2016 United States presidential election.

12.

When FBI agents arrived at her home on June 3,2017, Reality Winner didn't insist on consulting a lawyer, and the FBI agents failed to inform her of her Miranda rights when Reality Winner was arrested.

13.

When her house was searched and she was initially questioned, Reality Winner stated that she "wasn't trying to be a Snowden or anything".

14.

Reality Winner was detained even before The Intercept published the article that was based upon the leaks.

15.

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, called on the public to support Reality Winner, offering a $10,000 reward for information about a reporter for The Intercept who had allegedly helped the US government identify Reality Winner as the leaker.

16.

In October 2020, The Intercepts co-founding editor Glenn Greenwald wrote that Reality Winner had sent her documents to The Intercepts New York newsroom with no request that any specific journalist work on them.

17.

On January 31,2018, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court order blocking Reality Winner from posting bond, determining that no combination of conditions would reasonably assure her presence at trial, thus ensuring that she remained in jail until her trial, which was scheduled to begin on October 15,2018.

18.

Billie Winner-Davis, mother of Reality Winner, called on members of the public to join the campaign.

19.

On June 21,2018, Reality Winner asked the court to allow her to change her plea to guilty.

20.

Reality Winner will be transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, where she can receive treatment for bulimia and be relatively close to her family.

21.

Reality Winner's lawyer argued that her history of respiratory illness and immune system compromised by bulimia makes her highly vulnerable to the virus.

22.

Two inmates had tested positive before Reality Winner was transferred to the federal medical center where, under the terms of her June 2018 guilty plea agreement, Reality Winner was housed to meet her special needs.

23.

Reality Winner was immediately quarantined and never entered the general population there.

24.

On June 2,2021, Reality Winner was transferred from prison to a transitional facility, the San Antonio, Texas, Residential Reentry Management center.

25.

Reality Winner was not involved with the production during its initial Off-Broadway run and was unable to see the Broadway production due to still being under house arrest, but spoke with the creative team extensively following her release from prison and video-called into the opening night performance's curtain call.

26.

Reality Winner's story was featured in the April 21,2021, episode of the TBS series Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.