A judge has denied a request for early prison release from Reality Winner, who leaked classified information while working for a National Security Agency contractor at Fort Gordon.

In an order signed Friday, U.S. District Court Chief Judge J. Randal Hall denied Winner’s request for a compassionate release, saying she must first give her prison warden time to consider her request.

Winner asked for early release from the federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying she is especially at risk because of a history of respiratory illnesses and an eating disorder that can compromise the immune system, according to her motion. At Winner’s prison, a health care facility, two inmates have tested positive for COVID-19.

Winner, 28, was arrested in 2017 at her rented Battle Row home after federal agents tracked a classified document mailed anonymously to the online news outlet The Intercept to her.

The document, while still considered classified, was an analysis of Russian operatives’ moves to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. Winner admitted she smuggled the document out of Pluribus International at Fort Gordon where she worked.

Winner pleaded guilty under the federal Espionage Act, and Hall sentenced her to 63 months in prison. Her scheduled release date is Nov. 23, 2021.

A motion was filed on Winner’s behalf April 10 in the U.S. District Court of Augusta asking for a compassionate release, or for a sentence reduction to allow Winner to serve the rest of her sentence under house arrest.

The First Step Act allows an inmate to seek a compassionate release from a judge, but she must first petition the prison warden, Hall noted in his order. Winner submitted her request April 8 to the warden of FMC Carswell, where she is incarcerated.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prison, as of Sunday, 799 inmates and 319 staff have tested positive for COVID-19, and 27 inmates have died.