Reality Winner paid a steep price for her disclosure of classified material, but it’s also important to recognize the significant interest the public had in its content. I still teach from it in my election integrity course. rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
Justice would have been far better served had her sentence been commuted, but that was obviously something the previous administration was never going to consider. I hope she finds happier times ahead.
The Intercept absolutely deserves the criticism its gotten here, not just for its failure to protect its source, but also for its failure to more carefully redact the document to protect sensitive sources and methods.
The document appears to have included sensitive material that was reasonably classified and that could have compromised intelligence sources. Had it been better redacted before being published, that damage would have been far better mitigated.
But that said, it was absolutely newsworthy. It provided the first concrete evidence of not just foreign attacks against election infrastructure, but information local officials could use to understand the threat and defend their systems. We’re better off for knowing about it.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
