AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) – A young woman charged with leaking U.S. government secrets to a reporter poses no flight risk if she’s released from pre-trial confinement, her parents said, though they fear prosecutors will seek to use the case to send a tough message from the Trump administration.
It will be difficult for 25-year-old Reality Winner to get a fair trial if her case becomes “this big thing where we’re not going to tolerate leakers,” Winner’s mother, Billie Winner-Davis, told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday.
“I think they’re going to try to make an example out of her because of the political climate right now,” Winner-Davis said.
Winner, a former Air Force linguist who now works as a U.S. government contractor, was arrested Saturday by FBI agents on charges that she made copies of a classified report containing top-secret information and mailed it to an online news organization.
A judge has scheduled a hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court to determine whether to allow Winner to be released on bond pending trial. She has been jailed in neighboring Lincoln County since her arrest, according to a booking report released by the sheriff.