WASHINGTON--A U.S. intelligence contractor has been charged with leaking to a news organization classified National Security Agency material about Russian interference in the 2016 American presidential election, the Justice Department and officials said.
The Justice Department on Monday charged Reality Leigh Winner, 25, with removing classified material from a government facility in Georgia. It said she was arrested on Saturday.
It was one of the first concrete efforts by the administration of President Donald Trump to crack down on leaks to the media.
The charges were announced less than an hour after The Intercept published a top-secret document from the NSA that described Russian efforts to launch cyber attacks on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and send "spear-phishing" emails, or targeted emails, that try to trick a recipient into clicking on a malicious link to steal data, to more than 100 local election officials days before the Nov. 8 U.S. election.
While the charges do not name the publication, a U.S. official with knowledge of the case said Winner was charged with leaking the NSA report to The Intercept. A second official confirmed The Intercept document was authentic and did not dispute that the charges were directly tied to it.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the case beyond its filing. The Federal Bureau of Investigation did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Winner's mother also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Intercept report carried details it said supported the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russian intelligence services were seeking to infiltrate state voter registration systems as part of a broader effort to interfere in the election, discredit Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and help the Republican Trump win the election. The new material does not suggest that actual votes were manipulated.
The Intercept co-founding editor Glenn Greenwald did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While partially redacted, the NSA document is marked to show it would be up for declassification on May 5, 2042. The indictment against Winner alleges she "printed and improperly removed" classified intelligence reporting that was dated "on or about May 5, 2017."
Classified documents are typically due to be declassified after 25 years under an executive order signed under former President Bill Clinton.
