NSA leaker was ‘very scared’ when FBI arrested her

Accused NSA leaker Reality Winner was “very scared” when she was arrested by FBI agents for leaking classified documents to The Intercept, Winner’s mother told CNN Tuesday.

“She was very scared, they took her by surprise,” Billie Winner-Davis told Anderson Cooper. “She was not expecting any of this.”

According to Winner-Davis, the agents who arrived at Winner’s house to arrest her “were all armed” and took her into a back room of her house “that she never used.”

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“She was arrested from that point,” Winner-Davis said. “And we didn’t have any information with regard to the charges or anything until after the hearing Monday.”

On Monday the Justice Department charged Reality Winner, 25, with sharing top secret materiel with a media outlet.

Winner was a government contractor with top-secret clearance. On Monday, The Intercept published a report from classified documents claiming that Russian intelligence hacked hundreds of local election officials just days before the November 2016 election.

According to a Justice Department press release, the FBI obtained a warrant over the weekend to search Winner’s home, where she admitted to intentionally removing classified materials, and mailing them to The Intercept.