Apparently a lot of people missed the initial ABC News report on Reality Winner, the government contractor who is alleged to have passed a classified NSA report to The Intercept, but as Twitchy reported, the narrative — that, or the pubic comments beneath it — was “heartbreaking” to David Frum.
As ABC News tells it, young Edward Snowden superfan Winner was listening to an Intercept-hosted podcast featuring fellow Snowden superfan Glenn Greenwald, who told host Jeremy Scahill there was not a lot of hard evidence to back up all the hysterics surrounding allegations of Russia hacking the 2016 election. Winner realized she could get her hands on hard proof of Russian tampering, got in touch with The Intercept, and is now in jail.
Wow, Reality Winner leaked to the Intercept to try to persuade @ggreenwald to stop dismissing the Russia scandal https://t.co/oTfvcOSR7Q pic.twitter.com/lIaeh0rUDT
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) June 13, 2017
Greenwald, citing that tweet by Jonathan Chait and apparently tired of being beaten up online for essentially giving up Winner to the government, decided it was time to release a statement.
Statement of Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill: pic.twitter.com/HJACKjKjtz
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 13, 2017
That’s going to be near impossible to read, but in essence, Greenwald asserts that ABC News’ account is based on allegations by Trump’s Justice Department, and further, neither he nor Scahill worked on the NSA story, nor does either edit the Intercept. In short, stop blaming us that Winner got caught.
Yup. Kompromat greenwald has hurt an innocent. What a surprise, collateral damage. Glad you two got called out!
— Tinker, Tailor, Trump (@tlieftep) June 13, 2017
— Alexander Lloyd ?? for ?? (@alexlloyd723) June 13, 2017
Ouch.
Greenwald denies that his dismissal of Russia's role in hacking motivated Reality Winner to leak https://t.co/IgxZWfQ9Lj
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) June 13, 2017
That's not what the story you linked to actually says
— Ryan Plemmons (@Pandoplemonade) June 13, 2017
(He didn’t dismiss Russia’s role; he just said there’s no evidence … but that’s beside the point right now.)
I read the timeline in ABC's story as saying that, but I don't know why Winner acted.
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) June 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/MassivRuss/status/874717328424009729
Your reckless behavior has contributed to what we call #FakeNews. Thanks @JohnathanChait
Leave it to the public to make baseless accusation— I Cant Give Any More Shits Im out of shits to give (@Sleep_Chamber_P) June 13, 2017
Then why make that explicit claim? Irresponsible, at best?
— Adrian (@SillyPutty78) June 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/nathanhulickcpa/status/874718559590592512
You need to let your followers know how you put out fake news and apologize publicly to GG
— #WomenForBernie #NotMeUs #ResidueForBernie ⏳ (@RobertaAAvery) June 13, 2017
Despite the lengthy statement, a lot of people insist Greenwald’s the villain here, making poor Reality Winner copy that classified report and mail it to The Intercept.
Greenwald is a complete irresponsible turd!!! His negative attacks on Russian interference evidence got this poor girl jailed!!
— Tinker, Tailor, Trump (@tlieftep) June 13, 2017
I, uh, don't think Greenwald has a hell of a lot of credibility here tbh.
— Comrade ? ? (@comradebutt) June 13, 2017
and then Greenwald burned her. High degree of pettiness here.
— The Winter Shirtless Runner (@NickHannula) June 13, 2017
Annoyed that Winner was disrupting their narrative, they burned her . . .
— Dong Johnson (@froodude) June 13, 2017
He's more concerned over those meanie critics than the publication he cofounded destroying someone's life, as immoral as it gets
— NM (@nmr_canada) June 13, 2017
Greenwald has done considerable damage with his denials. Now a young woman is paying…
— *you're (@RKJ65) June 13, 2017
I think deep down Reality Winner is not a traitor. She's a misguided patriot who completely bungled this attempt to show the truth to USA!
— Captain Qwark (@Qwarktastic2) June 13, 2017
@ggreenwald Are you going to ignore this too? Winner is going to lose years of her life and you can't say a word about it. No integrity.
— whodunit? (@DawgsWillHunt) June 13, 2017
Lesson? You don't leak to these guys. Ever.
— Anthony McArthur (@AnthonyMcArthur) June 13, 2017
It’s obvious Greenwald employed hypnosis techniques in his podcast and forced Winner to copy and mail the documents against her will. That, or — here’s a crazy theory — she’s an adult who’s responsible for her own actions. Heck, we won’t even blame “the resistance” for hyping the ever-shifting Russian hacking story for months and months and months.
Election was in November. It's….June. Put up or move the hell on to running the country and dealing with N. Korea, Iran, jobs…
— Joe Manzella (@jpmanzella) June 13, 2017
* * *
Related:
‘Heartbreaking’ part of Reality Winner’s story apparent to David Frum, but remains secret to others https://t.co/4QkliFuKOX
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 13, 2017
Join the conversation as a VIP Member