Former Air Force linguist Reality Winner pleaded guilty on Tuesday to leaking a classified report about Russian interference in the 2016 election with the media.
Winner was arrested last June, and was the first person prosecuted by the Trump administration for leaking classified information. Her guilty plea was part of an agreement with prosecutors that calls for a sentence of five years and three months, the New York Times reported.
“All of my actions I did willfully, meaning I did so of my own free will,” Winner said in court Tuesday.
The guilty plea will allow the government to bypass a complicated trial, which was scheduled for October.
Winner obtained a copy of a report that described hacks by Russian intelligence against local elections offices while she was working as a contractor for the National Security Agency. Online news outlet the Intercept, which the prosecutor says Winner admired, published a copy of that report shortly before Winner’s arrest.
