Reality Winner, the 25-year-old government contractor accused of sharing National Security Agency (NSA) documents with a media outlet, plans on entering a plea of not guilty, according to her lawyer.
Titus Nichols told NPR Wednesday that Winner hopes to be released on bond Thursday, adding he would not confirm if his client was the source of the leak to The Intercept online news outlet.
“There’s not much to comment on right now as far as whether there is a connection between my client and Intercept,” he said.
“I know that there is documents circulating on the internet and everything else, but as far as concrete proof, we’re just not at that stage, yet.”
{mosads}Prosecutors on Monday announced that they had charged Winner with sharing top-secret material with a media outlet.
Court documents filed by the government did not specify what outlet received the material, but NBC News reported that the information went to The Intercept.
The Intercept published a top-secret NSA report Monday that alleged Russian military intelligence launched a 2016 cyberattack on a voting software company.
Details on The Intercept’s report suggest that it was created May 5, 2017 — the same day prosecutors say the materials Winner is charged with sharing were created.
Prosecutors said Winner allegedly “printed and improperly removed classified intelligence reporting, which contained classified national defense information,” last month.
They added that the FBI obtained a warrant to probe her home last weekend, where she admitted to intentionally removing classified materials, retaining them and then mailing them to the news outlet.
Winner, a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation, was arrested last Saturday after reportedly starting work for a government agency in Georgia in February.