Reality Winner exits the Augusta Courthouse June 8 in Augusta, Georgia. | Sean Rayford/Getty Images Alleged leaker Reality Winner said she stuffed NSA report in her pantyhose 'I wasn't trying to be a Snowden or anything,' she told FBI.

A National Security Agency contractor accused of leaking a classified report on Russian hacking aimed at the 2016 election told FBI agents she smuggled the document out of a high security intelligence facility in her pantyhose.

That and other details appear in a transcript federal prosecutors filed in court Wednesday detailing the interrogation of 25-year-old linguist Reality Winner by the FBI as they carried out a search warrant at her home in June.


After insisting for some time that she printed out the report and kept it on her desk for a few days before disposing of it in a burn bag, Winner caved and acknowledged she hid the document before sending it off to a news outlet, now known to be The Intercept.

"So how did you get it out of the office?" FBI agent Justin Garrick asked.

"Folded it in half in my pantyhose," Winner replied.

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The transcript — filed with a federal magistrate judge as part of the government's effort to keep Winner behind bars — also provides new details on Winner's explanation for why she allegedly took a copy of the document from the NSA facility at which she worked at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia.

Winner appears to say she believed the contents of the report — which described Russian spearfishing cyberattacks aimed at U.S. voter registration databases — should be in the public debate.

“I saw the article and was like, I don’t understand why this isn’t a thing,” she said. “It made me very mad ... I guess I just didn’t care about myself at that point. ... Yeah, I screwed up royally."

Winner told the agents that she knew the report implicated intelligence sources and methods. She said, though, that she thought it was likely the flood of leaks and disclosures on the topic — apparently Russian hacking focused on the U.S. election — had already exposed those techniques.

"Did you know that if that got out, that those sources and methods could be compromised?" Garrick asked.

"If they hadn't been already, then yes," Winner said. "I figured that ... that it didn't matter anyway. Umm, honestly, uh, I just figured that whatever we were using had already been compromised, and that this report was just going to be like a — one drop in the bucket."

She added: "Seeing that [information] that had been contested back and forth in the public domain for so long, trying to figure out, like, with everything else that keeps getting released and keeps getting leaked — why isn't this getting — why isn't this out there? Why can't this be public?"

Winner later acknowledged she didn't know for sure that the sources used for the report were already disclosed.

The transcript hints at possible political motivations for the leak. Winner says she objected to her workplace tuning the TV to Fox News. She also had a signed photo of CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper, although she said the signature was fake.

"I wasn't trying to be a Snowden or anything," Winner said, referring to NSA leaker Edward Snowden and his massive disclosures of details on U.S. government surveillance. "I guess it's just been hard at work because ... I've filed formal complaint about them having Fox News on, you know? Uh, at least, for God's sake, put Al Jazeera on, or a slideshow with people's pets. I've tried anything to get that changed."

Despite Winner's statement to the FBI agents, prosecutors say that in a Facebook chat in March with her sister, Winner said she was on the "side" of both Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The transcript made public Wednesday also contains some surprises.

While the government has been cagey about which agency Winner worked for, the document makes clear she worked at an NSA facility unveiled to the media under tight security in 2012. It also says she was assigned to "the Iranian Aerospace Forces Office."

Those kinds of details are usually considered classified, although the transcript is marked as having been downgraded from "Secret" to "Unclassified." The Justice Department news release and charging documents made public in June do not mention the NSA or Winner's specific assignment there. Officials have also declined to confirm that the report Winner is charged with leaking was produced by the NSA, but the transcript seems to confirm that fact.

The transcript filed publicly with the court Wednesday initially included Winner's social security number and date of birth, information excluded from public court filings under court rules. The password for the computer she had at home at the time of the search was also included.

Some information detailing the nature of the specific intelligence report Winner is accused of leaking was blacked out from the transcript placed in the court record. Quotes from portions of the transcript were included in previous court filings.

After POLITICO inquired with a Justice Department spokesman about the appearance of Winner's social security number and date of birth in the publicly filed document, prosecutors refiled the transcript with that information removed.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian Epps has scheduled a hearing for Friday on Winner's request to be released pending trial, currently set for March 1.

Prosecutors say federal sentencing guidelines call for her to receive at least a nine year prison term if she goes to trial and is convicted.

Cory Bennett contributed to this report.