NSA leaker who mailed doc outlining Russian hacking gets 5 years in prison
Reality Winner, the intelligence contractor who leaked to The Intercept and was quickly caught in June 2017 thanks to microdot printing, was sentenced to 63 months in prison on Thursday. She had pleaded guilty on June 21 to a single count of unlawful retention and transmission of national defense information.
The information that Winner provided to The Intercept resulted in this June 5, 2017 news story: "Top-Secret NSA Report details Russian hacking effort days before 2016 election."
Previously: Feds Arrest NSA Contractor in Leak of Top Secret Russia Document
Reality Winner NSA Leak Details Revealed by Court Transcript
Reality Winner Pleads Guilty to Leaking NSA Election Hacking Data
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday August 24 2018, @02:07AM (2 children)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistleblower_protection_in_the_United_States [wikipedia.org]
I'm pretty sure the laws only protect whistleblowers who make a complaint to the appropriate government office, not a media outlet. And you can still face rejection or other consequences when going through the appropriate channel.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @04:36AM
What you have to realize is that you only get Federal Govt whistleblower protection if you "out" someone the govt doesn't like.
It's really no protection at all in the general case. It's meant to protect someone who exposes a person who is ripping off the govt or breaking govt policy.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @04:35PM
Yeah, I imagine that would go something like this.
Reality Winner: the Russians have been hacking into US elections. The people need to know about this ASAP.
Government Official: Thank you for bringing this to my attention! Now, there are a couple of big, burly dudes waiting outside for you. They would like to immediately see you in their "office".