NSA leaker Actuality Winner appears to be like again in a brand new memoir : NPR

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Christopher Lee/Spiegel & Grau In Could 2017, amid allegations of overseas interference within the 2016 presidential election, a contractor for the Nationwide Safety Company (NSA) leaked a categorized doc to the press. The doc revealed that Russia had launched two cyber assaults previous to the election, one in opposition to an organization that bought software program associated to voter registration, and one other in opposition to 122 native election officers.

The contractor, an Air Power veteran named Actuality Winner, despatched the doc to The Intercept, a journalism web site specializing in reporting leaks. However Winner admits now that she made an important miscalculation.

"What I had assumed was they might obtain it [and] instantly assume that this was one thing that was essential, that it answered essential questions that the nation was having, that it could be protected," she says.

That is not what occurred. As an alternative, within the technique of fact-checking the doc, the reporters assigned to the story despatched the doc to the FBI, which despatched it to the NSA. The safety company simply recognized Winner, a crypto linguist, because the supply of the leak.

Trying again now, Winner says her timing couldn't have been worse; the Trump administration had been combatting a string of leaks. FBI director James Comey and the president "had been each saying that they had been going to nail the subsequent leaker to the wall," she says. "After which I simply occurred to be the very subsequent identify popping up."

Winner was tried below the Espionage Act of 1917 and acquired the longest sentence to that time for leaking categorized info to a media outlet. She accepted a plea deal, reducing her sentence of 10 years to 5. She was launched from jail in 2021.

Winner's story has been informed in a 2021 documentary Actuality Winner, the 2023 movie Actuality, and within the play Is This A Room, wherein actors reenacted the transcript of the FBI interrogation of her. Now, she's wanting again in a memoir titled I Am Not Your Enemy. It isn't a tell-all, she says, as a result of she's nonetheless certain by the non-disclosure settlement she signed with the NSA.

"I'm below an enduring ... non-disclosure settlement to by no means discuss something that might be associated to categorized info from my Air Power profession as a linguist, after which, shifting ahead, something that I had achieved as an NSA contractor, and moreover, something inside the 4 corners of the doc that I leaked," she says.

Interview highlights <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/994x1500+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcd%2Fd3%2Fd5218f2c49f7a722cdad2adfc1e9%2F71vkiu11jhl-sl1500.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/994x1500+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcd%2Fd3%2Fd5218f2c49f7a722cdad2adfc1e9%2F71vkiu11jhl-sl1500.jpg" class="img" alt="71VKiU11JHL._SL1500_.jpg" loading="lazy"/>

On what it was like within the Georgia county jail

The situations of that county jail in Lincoln County, Ga. had been abhorrent. ... I had been sheltered and privileged and naïve earlier than that. I didn't ever think about that situations like that may be thought-about regular and even good for any American in custody. And I used to be assured a number of occasions over that I used to be being handled the perfect and that was probably the most comfy county jail within the space.

I used to be given this plastic mat with this crumpled plastic wool falling out of it [to sleep on]. It was held along with duct tape. That was my mat. … There was one sink, a picnic desk that was lined in rust within the heart of the room, a bathroom that was about three toes away from that picnic desk that we had been supposed to sit down and eat at, and a bathe immediately by the bathroom with a black mold-crusted bathe curtain over it. There was one thing so dystopian about it. … The bathroom had a brown bedsheet draped over it in order that you did not have to eat on the desk and make eye contact with someone utilizing the bathroom.

On being transferred to a federal jail in Carswell, Texas

My first week there, I felt like I used to be at Harvard. I could not consider how huge the compound was. It was two buildings and a really small rec heart with a concrete monitor. … My sensory deprivation of 15, 16 months solely current in a single room [in the Georgia county jail], I simply remembered strolling round Carswell and pondering, I will get misplaced right here each single day. It is simply so huge.

On experiencing COVID-19 restrictions in jail

We had been confined to our cells, which didn't have restrooms. So we needed to ask 24-7, seven days per week, to go use the restroom from one other grownup.

Actuality Winner

We had been confined to our cells, which didn't have restrooms. So we needed to ask 24-7, seven days per week, to go use the restroom from one other grownup. We had been now not allowed to go exterior and our actions had been managed across the unit. We could not simply bathe once we needed to bathe or go use their telephones. As they eased up, we had been nonetheless not allowed exterior of the unit. …

The constructive mail stored me going. I additionally had a community the place I may simply ask for any guide I needed and it could present up. So along with getting each single guide I heard you discuss on Contemporary Air for 4 years, I used to be principally the library for everyone within the unit. They might give me their requests and other people's books would present up.

On struggling after her launch, particularly with darkness

For the primary time in 4 years, I had really seen what a darkish room regarded like. … I had by no means been alone in a room earlier than, except solitary confinement, however that wasn't actually alone. So I used to be simply so terrified on a regular basis. I couldn't really feel relaxed in any means, form or type. I by no means anticipated that may be one thing that I might really feel. … No one tells you that when you get out of jail life simply will get more durable.

On battle together with her mom after her launch

The largest level of rivalry between my mom and I used to be the standing of my notoriety and the truth that she had been out for 4 years doing interviews about me and ... that she felt obligated to inform her Twitter following updates about me whereas the midway home was saying, "In case your presence is detected on social media, or if we really feel such as you're speaking on social in any means, or that we really feel you are at risk, we'll take you again into custody." And my mom had needed to tweet that I used to be dwelling. And I mentioned that they might take me again into custody if folks knew I used to be at that dwelling deal with. And he or she mentioned that she needed to be truthful to her following. And I simply felt so offended, like the one cause why you had that following was to help me and I am sitting proper right here in entrance of you and also you care extra about them than me. … I felt like whereas I used to be at my most weak, she was nonetheless processing issues by way of being interviewed about me as a substitute of being my mother. And, you realize, our relationship remains to be on the mend.

On what she's doing now

I am a stage two CrossFit coach and I'm at the moment going to Texas A&M College Kingsville within the veterinary know-how program. … We did must ship attorneys for permission to not less than take the state licensing take a look at in order that I may assist my college out with passing charges, however [as a convicted felon] I'll by no means be a licensed vet tech.

Sam Briger and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Meghan Sullivan tailored it for the online