NYT:
An intelligence contractor was charged with sending a classified report about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election to the news media, the Justice Department announced Monday, the first criminal leak case under President Trump.
The case showed the department’s willingness to crack down on leaks, as Mr. Trump has called for in complaining that they are undermining his administration. His grievances have contributed to a sometimes tense relationship with the intelligence agencies he now oversees.
The Justice Department announced the case against the contractor, Reality Leigh Winner, 25, about an hour after the national-security news outlet The Intercept published the apparent document, a May 5 intelligence reportfrom the National Security Agency.
The report described two cyberattacks by Russia’s military intelligence unit, the G.R.U. — one in August against a company that sells voter registration-related software and another, a few days before the election, against 122 local election officials.
These leaks lately are not bad things. And (like the most recent one from NSA) they're coming from patriots not criminals.
Of course, I don't know anything about Ms Winner, but I think I can draw a line between her and (eg) Ed Snowden, and make a pretty good case to the effect that Ms Winner did it trying to help us, while Snowden and Assange did it trying to help Vlad Putin, and to line their own pockets.
People like Ms Winner are putting themselves at great personal risk to get info out to us that we need to see.
They can't push that info up thru channels because they know the White House gang will do anything to keep us from knowing what kinda shit they (and their Russian buddies) were up to during the election process last year.
And since there's practically no one in Congress who isn't scrambling to cash in on Trump's trouble in one way or another (or just to cover his own ass), about the only way they can get the truth out to us is to break the law.
This looks to be in the finest American traditions of civil disobedience. These people are fucking heroes.
Wanna know how I'm more or less sure of what I just said? I feel pretty confident believing the leakers are heroes because 45* and his gang are adamant about calling them traitors.
Daddy State Basics:
- Every Accusation is a Confession.
- Every boast is an Admission of Inadequacy and/or an attempt to take credit for someone else's work.
- Every warning of some tragic event that's coming our way is a Statement of Intent - either they're currently, actively, and directly causing the tragedy, or they're planning to cause it in order to punish us if we don't go along with whatever shitty policy they're proposing.
- Every day is upside-down-n-backwards day in the Daddy State.
