The Intercept’s parent company said it will help fund the legal defense of accused National Security Agency leaker Reality Winner after she was charged under the Espionage Act for allegedly providing classified material about Russian hacking.
Intercept Editor-in-Chief Betsy Reed said First Look Media will pay for a law firm to support Winner’s already retained legal team. She has pleaded not guilty.
“We at The Intercept have always opposed the use of the Espionage Act against government whistleblowers. Our stand is unwavering and we would object to the prosecution of Winner under the act even if we had no connection to the materials she is accused of disclosing,” Intercept Editor-in-Chief Betsy Reed said in a post online.
Winner, a 25-year-old former NSA contractor, is accused of printing off and mailing a classified document to the Intercept that formed the basis of a story regarding Russian hacking attempts on U.S. voting systems in the 2016 election. She was charged an hour after the story was published online.
“Belief that it is wrong for journalistic sources to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act is the key principle that moved the Press Freedom Defense Fund to provide support for Winner’s legal defense,” Reed said.
A judge scheduled Winner’s trial for Oct. 23. She has been denied bail.
“The ongoing criminal case prevents us from going into detail, but I can state that, at several points in the editorial process, our practices fell short of the standards to which we hold ourselves for minimizing the risks of source exposure when handling anonymously provided materials,” Reed said. “Like other journalistic outlets, we routinely verify such materials with any individuals or institutions implicated by their disclosure … . This process carries some risks of source exposure that are impossible to mitigate when dealing with sensitive materials. Nonetheless, it is clear that we should have taken greater precautions to protect the identity of a source who was anonymous even to us. As the editor-in-chief, I take responsibility for this failure, and for making sure that the internal newsroom issues that contributed to it are resolved.”
