A former contractor for the National Security Agency was sentenced to prison Thursday for leaking classified information about the Russian hacking to the media.
Reality Leigh Winner, 26, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty in June to leaking top secret documents, according to the Associated Press.
“The sentence rendered today is the longest received by a defendant for an unauthorized disclosure of national defense information to the media,” U.S. Justice Department officials said in a statement released Thursday following Winner’s sentencing in Augusta, Georgia.
“It appropriately satisfies the need for both punishment and deterrence, in light of the nature and seriousness of the offense,” the Justice Department statement reads.
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