Reality Winner.
Federal lawyers prosecuting accused government leaker Reality Winner are doubling down in a dispute with Winner's defense team over what should be treated as classified information. They insist that news reports and other public sources citing classified material must be filed under seal and shared only with those who have top security clearances.
Prosecutors contended in court papers filed Monday in federal court in Augusta, Georgia, that if, during the course of Winner's prosecution, her defense team is given access to classified materials by the government that also have been the subject of published news reports or broadcasts, the defense must protect the classified information.
Possession of a security clearance, prosecutors added, imposes restrictions on what an individual can disclose, including repetition or confirmation of classified information known to that individual that, due to unauthorized disclosure, has appeared in the public domain.
The battle over whether defense lawyers may rely on or refer to news media accounts and other publicly available materials in defending Winner goes to the heart of the case against the 25-year-old former U.S. Air Force veteran and National Security Agency contractor. While prosecuting Winner, prosecutors have said they want to limit to people with security clearances the release or discussion of classified materials and anything else that could reasonably be believed to contain classified information.
Winner is accused of leaking a top secret document to online news outlet The Intercept earlier this summer. That document, which The Intercept has said it obtained anonymously, served as the basis for a news story revealing specific details of alleged cyberattacks by Russian military intelligence apparently intended to compromise voting systems across the U.S. in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
The document, a redacted version of which The Intercept also published on its website, states that no information contained in it nor derived from it may be used in any criminal or civil proceeding without advance approval of the U.S. attorney general or the federal agency that originated it.
Winner's lawyers have vigorously protested what they say are prosecutors' heavy-handed efforts to cast a broad secrecy blanket over the proceedings that could hobble Winner's ability to defend herself. The federal espionage statute under which she has been charged is intended to prevent military secrets from being stolen and then handed to enemies of the U.S., her lawyers have contended. But they said in court papers filed last week, Whether information about these Russian efforts falls within the scope of information about the secret activities of our Army and Navy that the Espionage Act was enacted to protect is doubtful.