Atlanta – A former government contractor who leaked a classified report on Russian hacking is thanking President Donald Trump for tweeting about her case.
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In a Thursday telephone interview from a Georgia jail, Reality Winner told “CBS This Morning” that Trump’s tweet was a “breath of fresh air” and it made her laugh. Trump tweeted Aug. 24 that Winner’s crime is “small potatoes” compared with “what Hillary Clinton did.”
Prosecutors have said Winner once wrote in a notebook of her desire to “burn the White House down.”
She has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for mailing the classified material to a news outlet. Prosecutors say it’s the longest sentence ever for a federal crime involving leaks to the news media.
Asked whether she regretted the leak, she replied: “Yes, deeply.”
She is a strange person. The President may be compromising an appeal or other legal action. He ought not to comment on legal proceedings.
“Prosecutors say it’s the longest sentence ever for a federal crime involving leaks to the news media.”
Wikipedia states that this was a plea bargain! So allegedly the longest sentence ever for this kind of crime came about through a plea bargain? How does that make any sense?
Freedom of press is being fought quietly.
My bro Munch says women are being treated unfairly in prisons because the prison system treats tampons like contraband. Don’t ask him how he knows this.
In cases like this, the government is eager to not have to use classified information in an open court. Even if they can prove you stole something very major they may not want to take that charge to the judge. The defense can only use the classified information the government used to prove its case. So we threaten a spy with a very major sentence unless they take a deal. If they refuse to cop a deal we drop the hammer on them (as in the Rosenbergs or Pollard).
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In the Rosenberg case, they were offered a deal. The husband refused. They told him if he did not cooperate they would go for a double death penalty, even though the wife was not as involved. He still refused, so the government killed them both.
A leader of a democracy, publicly calling for the jailing of his ex opponent should be extremely troubling, especially when there was an investigation and she was cleared.
She may have done stupid things, but nothing illegal.
What about the “law and order” president.
To #5 - Hey, Paul, you should do better research. Pollard DID take a plea deal; however, the government double crossed him, and because of Judge Aubrey Robinson (who had no love of Israel), and Caspar Weinberger (a self-hating person with Jewish ancestry, who also hated Israel), threw the book at him, resulting in his 30 year prison sentence.