(Reuters) - A federal judge sentenced former U.S. intelligence contractor Reality Winner on Thursday to more than five years in prison after she admitted leaking to a media outlet [The Intercept] a top secret report on Russian interference in U.S. elections, her attorney said. ...
The NSA document she gave the news outlet contained technical details on what it said were Russian attempts to hack election officials in the United States and a voting-machine company before the November 2016 presidential election, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the case have said. ...
Betsy Reed, editor in chief of The Intercept, said in a statement that Winner should be honored, and that her sentencing and other prosecutions of whistleblowers were attacks on freedom of speech and of the press.
“Instead of being recognized as a conscience-driven whistleblower whose disclosure helped protect U.S. elections, Winner was prosecuted with vicious resolve by the Justice Department under the Espionage Act,” Reed said.
The Intercept laughably maintains that publishing Winner's leaked document long after Election 2016 in June 2017 helped alert US states to Russian interference in the 2016 election when, as The Intercept itself admits, Russian hacking attempts of US elections have been and are "still front-page news almost two years later":
The federal government kept several states allegedly targeted by hackers in the dark about the specifics of these attacks until The Intercept published its story.
In fact, the day after The Intercept’s story came out, the Election Assistance Commission — the federal agency in charge of assisting state election officials — wrote an urgent bulletin to states, calling the report “credible” and urging state officials to read it. The EAC then provided advice on how to take action. (The commission, unbelievably, tweeted the hashtag #RealityWinner to promote its bulletin on social media).
