Now this is news: DOJ charges federal contractor with leaking classified intel to the media

As Twitchy reported not long ago, The Intercept started a buzz on Twitter with its write-up of a newly completed NSA report detailing Russian efforts to hack local election officials using stolen data.

As some noted, those efforts had been reported on last fall; what was new was the leak of the NSA’s report, and it looks like at least one person will get a shock out it — the government contractor who’s being charged with leaking classified materials to a news outlet.

DOJ just announced charges against someone who gave classified intel to a news outlet. Description matches 5/5/17 NSA report… pic.twitter.com/4gioMhFKJn

— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) June 5, 2017

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/871839766949629952

BREAKING: US DOJ charges federal contractor with "removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet."

— Micah Grimes (@MicahGrimes) June 5, 2017

Affidavit: Gov't began an internal review after "news outlet" alerted to the leak in order to confirm it ahead of reporting on the docs.

— Micah Grimes (@MicahGrimes) June 5, 2017

The Justice Department issued a press release Monday:

A criminal complaint was filed in the Southern District of Georgia today charging Reality Leigh Winner, 25, a federal contractor from Augusta, Georgia, with removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 793(e).

Winner was arrested by the FBI at her home on Saturday, June 3, and appeared in federal court in Augusta this afternoon.

…

Winner is a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation assigned to a U.S. government agency facility in Georgia. She has been employed at the facility since on or about February 13, and has held a Top Secret clearance during that time. On or about May 9, Winner printed and improperly removed classified intelligence reporting, which contained classified national defense information from an intelligence community agency, and unlawfully retained it. Approximately a few days later, Winner unlawfully transmitted by mail the intelligence reporting to an online news outlet.