Sept. 28 (UPI) — A woman accused of leaking sensitive documents from the National Security Agency smuggled them out of a secure facility in her pantyhose, according to a court filing.
The transcript of authorities’ interrogation with Reality Winner was filed in court on Wednesday, and revealed details of an interview with FBI agents earlier this summer.
Federal prosecutors say Winner leaked a classified report to a news outlet, The Intercept, regarding information related to potential Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
According to the filing, when asked by an FBI agent how she got the information out of the high-security offices, Winner said she “folded it in half in my pantyhose.”
The court transcript also provides a look into why Winner released the information to the press. She said she believed the information should be public knowledge.
“I saw the article and was like, I don’t understand why this isn’t a thing,” Winner said of the confidential NSA report. “It made me very mad … I guess I just didn’t care about myself at that point. … Yeah, I screwed up royally.
“Seeing that [information] that had been contested back and forth in the public domain for so long, trying to figure out, like, with everything else that keeps getting released and keeps getting leaked – why isn’t this getting – why isn’t this out there? Why can’t this be public?”
Winner worked as a translator at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Ga.
She pleaded guilty and was denied bail back in June.
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