President Donald Trump has called the sentencing of ex-NSA contractor Reality Winner “so unfair,” comparing the case to last year’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified material.
Trump argued that the federal government’s actions against Winner constituted a double standard in a Friday morning tweet aimed at Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“Ex-NSA contractor to spend 63 months in jail over ‘classified’ information,” the president said. “Gee, this is ‘small potatoes’ compared to what Hillary Clinton did! So unfair Jeff, Double Standard.”
Ex-NSA contractor to spend 63 months in jail over “classified” information. Gee, this is “small potatoes” compared to what Hillary Clinton did! So unfair Jeff, Double Standard.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2018
Winner, who pled guilty to one felony count of unauthorized transmission of national defense material, is the first individual to be sentenced under the Espionage Act since Trump became president.
The former Air Force linguist leaked a classified report concerning alleged Russian interference into the 2016 election to media outlet The Intercept.
The five year and three month sentence will be the longest ever for a journalist’s source in the history of the U.S. federal court.
United States Attorney Bobby L. Christine told reporters following the sentencing that Winner endangered U.S. national security.
“Winner’s purposeful violation put our nation’s security at risk,” Christine said, adding that the incident also “caused exceptionally grave damage to U.S. national security.”
Trevor Timm, executive director for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, pushed back on the government’s allegations in a piece for The Intercept Thursday.
“The government did not produce one iota of public evidence to back up its claims, citing only an unnamed ‘expert’ whose comments are completely classified, and referring to the ‘top secret’ marking on the document that they say ‘by definition’ proves their point,” Timm wrote.
Prior to his comments on Winner, Trump similarly asked Sessions over Twitter to “look into all of the corruption on the ‘other side.'”
“Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!” the president said.
“Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.” Jeff, this is GREAT, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the “other side” including deleted Emails, Comey lies & leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2018
….FISA abuse, Christopher Steele & his phony and corrupt Dossier, the Clinton Foundation, illegal surveillance of Trump Campaign, Russian collusion by Dems – and so much more. Open up the papers & documents without redaction? Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2018
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