The Intercept's parent company First Look Media will fund the legal defense of accused NSA leaker Reality Winner, who was charged with violating a section of the Espionage Act after mailing classified documents to the news outlet.

Winner, who was a government contractor with top-secret clearance, was arrested by FBI agents last month for leaking classified documents to The Intercept.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Intercept will provide funding for an additional law firm and as a separate grant, $50,000 in matching funds to Stand With Reality, a crowd-funding campaign to support public awareness and legal work around Winner’s case, the news outlet said in a statement from Betsy Reed, its editor-in-chief.

The NSA report was the basis of a story published by The Intercept that described efforts by Russian military intelligence to hack into the voting infrastructures of several states.

"We at The Intercept have always opposed the use of the Espionage Act against government whistleblowers," Reed wrote in the statement. "Our stand is unwavering and we would object to the prosecution of Winner under the act even if we had no connection to the materials she is accused of disclosing."

Investigators were able to tell from a copy of the report that it had been printed, according to court filings. A computer search revealed that Winner had had email contact with the media outlet, according to an FBI affidavit.

The FBI obtained a warrant to search Winner’s home, where she admitted to intentionally removing classified materials and mailing them to The Intercept, according to a Justice Department press release.

The Intercept also addressed concerns over its role in Winner's arrest, saying that an internal review of their reporting was completed and though the ongoing criminal case prevents them from going in detail, "at several points in the editorial process" their "practices fell short of the standards" to which they hold themselves responsible "for minimizing the risks of source exposure when handling anonymously provided materials."

"It is clear that we should have taken greater precautions to protect the identity of a source who was anonymous even to us," Reed's statement continued. "As the editor-in-chief, I take responsibility for this failure, and for making sure that the internal newsroom issues that contributed to it are resolved."