Federal appeals court denies bail for Reality Winner

A Kingsville woman accused of leaking classified information in June was denied bail by a federal appeals court.

The ruling Wednesday means Reality Leigh Winner will remain behind bars while she awaits trial.

Winner, 26, had appealed a decision from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to deny bail based on concerns that she was a flight risk. Winner's attorneys filed a motion that argued she was not a flight risk, pointing out her strong family ties, humanitarian and military service, and lack of a criminal record as factors in favor of bail.

“I am beyond heartbroken” Winner’s mother, Billie Winner-Davis, said in a prepared statement about the bail denial. “The trial, originally scheduled in October 2017 and then reset to March 2018, will once again be reset to a much later date, but as of now we do not have a new setting. There is so much going on with the evidence and discovery and there are a few active appeals not yet ruled on. It's gonna be a long journey.”

Winner, a Kingsville native and H.M. King High School graduate, is charged with providing a classified top-secret government document to a news organization without authorization. She was arrested in early June 2017 at her home in Georgia after an investigation by federal authorities into the leak of documents from the National Security Agency the previous month. She has been jailed since.

More: Woman accused of leaking classified information lived in Kingsville

Winner was a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation assigned to a U.S. government agency facility in Georgia.

USA Today previously reported that the documents detailed the Russian "spear-fishing" attack ahead of the 2016 presidential election targeting local government employees with emails that appeared to be from e-voting vendors, but were designed to allow hackers to infect and gain control of computers.

Justices for the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld the district court's previous decision to deny Winner bail. They pointed to statements Winner reportedly made to family members and on social media that caused concern.

Those included anti-government statements ("Look, I only say I hate America like three times a day. I'm no radical. It's mostly just about Americans' obsession with air conditioning."), according to the filing. Winner reportedly characterized her statements as "mere hyperbole" and that they "reflect the weird sense of humor she shares with her sister," according to Wednesday's ruling.

"The statements if viewed in a different light, suggest that Ms. Winner may have a reason to flee, as she does not have any confidence in the government which has accused her of serious criminal conduct," the justices wrote.

In addition, the justices said there were valid concerns with Winner's ability to speak Middle Eastern languages, like Farsi, Dari and Pashto, along with the seriousness of the offense charged and strength of the case against Winner that supported the district court's decision to deny bail.

"Given the evidence summarized above, the district court did not err in finding by a preponderance that Ms. Winner is a flight risk and that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure her appearance," the justices wrote.