Trial of accused NSA leaker set for October

Reality Winner, the 25-year-old former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor charged with leaking a classified report to The Intercept, has had her trial set for October, CNN reported on Wednesday.

Winner is charged with one count of taking classified work materiel home and sending it to a news organization. The FBI arrested Winner in early June after Winner allegedly leaked a top-secret NSA report detailing a 2016 Russian cyberattack on a voting software company. 

The Justice Department announced Winner’s arrest the same day the NSA report was published by online news outlet The Intercept.

According to the CNN report, one key piece of evidence being examined by prosecutors is a notebook full of notes hand-written in Farsi. Winner speaks Farsi, as well as English and two other languages. 

{mosads}

In a statement, the agency said Winner “printed and improperly removed classified intelligence reporting, which contained classified national defense information.”

In a statement to CNN, Winner’s court-appointed attorney cast doubt on the government’s accusations and said that his client may have given a confession under duress.

“The bigger issue is: Was my client interrogated without her attorney?” Titus Nichols asked in a statement.

If convicted, Winner faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.