Former National Security Agency contractor Reality Winner was released from Federal Medical Center prison in Fort Worth, Texas, her attorney announced Monday.
“I am thrilled to announce that Reality Winner has been released from prison. She is still in custody in the residential reentry process, but we are relieved and hopeful,” attorney Alison Grinter Allen said in a statement on Twitter.
Winner, 29, pleaded guilty in June 2018 to leaking classified information about Russian interference during the 2016 election. She was subsequently sentenced to 63 months in prison in what former U.S. Attorney Bobby Christine noted at the time was the “longest [sentence] received by a defendant for an unauthorized disclosure of national defense information to the media.”
FEDERAL PROSECUTORS INVESTIGATING 2020 ELECTION INTERFERENCE BY UKRAINIANS: REPORT
She will remain in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons under home confinement, according to the Associated Press.
Allen requested privacy for Winner and her family “as they work to heal the trauma of incarceration and build back the years lost.”
Some very exciting news for #RealityWinner and her family!! pic.twitter.com/yjZf7xiitk
— Alison Grinter Allen (@alisongrinter) June 14, 2021
“Her release is not a product of the pardon or compassionate release process, but rather the time earned from exemplary behavior while incarcerated,” Allen said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Winner, who contracted COVID-19 while in prison, previously asked a federal appeals court for her to serve the remainder of her sentence in home confinement due to the pandemic, but her request was denied.
