A day after her arrest was announced publicly by the U.S. Justice Department, Reality Winner, the 25-year-old alleged source of a leaked National Security Agency document detailing Russian hacking efforts, has found a vocal ally in the world's best known whistleblower of the contemporary era: Edward Snowden.

Snowden, who first made headlines around the world in 2013 when he went public as the source of a massive trove of NSA documents detailing the agency's global "collect-it-all" surveillance dragnet, released a statement Tuesday evening saying that while much remains unknown about the details of the case, the Justice Department's decision to file charges under the 'Espionage Act' is deeply troubling.

"This often-condemned law," he explained, "provides no space to distinguish the extraordinary disclosure of inappropriately classified information in the public interest—whistleblowing—from the malicious disclosure of secrets to foreign governments by those motivated by a specific intent to harm to their countrymen.

Snowden further argues that Winner should be released on bail pending her trial and said that for the government to hold any "citizen incommunicado and indefinitely while awaiting trial for the alleged crime of serving as a journalistic source should outrage" anyone concerned about the free press, whistleblower protections, or the public's right to know.

When asked to choose between a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, remember your history. https://t.co/ca7FTp4OSF — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) June 6, 2017

Released on the website of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a journalism advocacy group for which Snowden serves as board president, his statement follows in full: