It’s been three months since Reality Winner walked out of federal prison after serving just over half of an originally five-year and three-month sentence for committing espionage.
For those who may have forgotten, Winner is the Air Force veteran, Arabic linguist, and former National Security Agency contractor who, in the summer of 2017, leaked a top-secret intelligence report detailing Russia’s attempts to hack the 2016 presidential election. The vast majority of the media have portrayed Winner as a “patriotic whistleblower.” Many words have been written painting her as a naive 20-something vegan who loves Pokemon and yoga and drives a charming Nissan Cube, complete with a “Make America Green Again” bumper sticker.
The only problem with this narrative is it is demonstrably false. In truth, Reality Winner purposefully planned to commit espionage. She said, “I only say I hate America like 3 times a day,” and viewed the U.S. as “literally the worst thing to happen on the planet.”
Court documents detailing Winner’s internet search history reveal that in the fall of 2016, Winner was searching for job openings for Arabic linguists and intelligence analysts. Still in the Air Force and holding an active Top Secret/SCI security clearance, Winner was simultaneously researching travel to various locales in the Middle East (such as Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine). She was visiting websites associated with the Taliban and learning how to contact the Syrian Kurdish militia, YPG. In fairness, who hasn’t found themselves falling down a few Google search rabbit holes from time to time. Perhaps an internet history isn’t the best measure of a man or woman!
Instead, let’s take a look at Winner’s social media during this same period.
Oh, dear! According to her still-active Twitter account (@Reezlie), Winner was passionate about animal rights, the environment, and equality. Unlike her fellow left-leaning millennials, Winner was also a big fan of pro-Taliban, pro-Iranian, pro-Russian, and anti-American propaganda. In one of many examples of the types of content she posted, shared, or liked: “There are many Americans protesting U.S. govt aggression towards Iran. If our Tangerine in Chief declares war, we stand with you!” Winner replied in a tweet to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
There’s more. During the initial detention hearing following her arrest, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Solari testified that FBI agents found two notebooks during their search of Winner’s house that contained some intriguing handwritten musings. “I want to burn the White House down” and “Find somewhere in Kurdistan to live or Nepal,” wrote Winner. Winner discussed Osama Bin Laden in another diatribe, deeming the terrorist leader “Judas” to the Taliban’s “Christ-like vision of a fundamentalist Islamic nation.” When denying Winner’s request for bail, U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian Epps said, “She seems to have a fascination with the Middle East and Islamic terrorism.”
Shattering the idea of a “whistleblower” driven by strong moral convictions, Winner had, in fact, been plotting to leak classified information for some time. When discussing her onboard security training on insider threats, “It was hard not to laugh,” Winner told her older sister in a private Facebook message two days after going to work for NSA contractor Pluribus International Corp. “I have to take a polygraph where they’re going to ask if I’ve ever plotted against the govt #gonnafail,” giggled Winner. To her sister’s advice to “just convince yourself that you are writing a novel,” Winner replied, “Look, I only say I hate America like 3 times a day. I’m no radical.”
“But you don’t actually hate America, right?” the self-described “elder and wiser sister,” Brittany Winner, asked. “I mean yeah I do it’s literally the worst thing to happen to the planet,” Reality answered.
A month later, in another series of private messages between sisters, Reality celebrated Wikileaks’s release of “Vault 7” and its leak of the CIA’s Top Secret electronic surveillance and cyber warfare tools. “It’s so awesome though. They just crippled the program.” Federal prosecutors also revealed that days before getting out of the Air Force in November 2016, Winner inserted a removable thumb drive into a Top Secret computer. What may have been downloaded and what happened to the thumb drive have never been revealed.
It can’t be underscored enough. All of the previously described behavior occurred many months before Winner ever even saw the classified document she leaked because she was “mad about the media coverage of the 2016 presidential election.” During her FBI interview, Winner admitted that her actions intentionally compromised intelligence sources and methods. Likewise, acknowledging the information she shared could be used to injure the United States or assist a foreign nation, Winner ultimately pled guilty to committing espionage. So while it may be unpopular to call Winner a “spy,” this is one aspect of her case that should be indisputable.
Was Winner a cultivated foreign intelligence asset or just a “useful idiot” vulnerable to her steady diet of foreign propaganda?
The latter description seems most likely. Curiously, however, days after Winner printed off the classified NSA report, she jetted off to Belize for a three-day weekend. “Nothing criminal about that, Your Honor, but it seems odd to spend the kind of money necessary for a trip all the way to Central America, to go alone, and then to come right back after such a short period of time with very little idea what she did there. And she claims that she met with no one,” a Federal prosecutor testified. This is relevant because foreign intelligence services will often conduct clandestine meetings with U.S. sources on foreign soil.
Winner has paid her proverbial debt to society. Though she’ll rightfully never hold a position of public trust again, in fairness, her treasonous past should be put behind her. Yet, the media have done the public no favors in failing to accurately portray why Winner did what she did. Reality Winner may be a Pokemon-loving social justice warrior, but she was also an anti-American spy.
Tim McMillan is a retired police lieutenant, an investigative reporter, and the co-founder and executive director of The Debrief. His writing covers defense, science, and the intelligence community.
