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Ex-Contractor in
[Mil.com] SAVANNAH, Ga. -- A young woman charged with leaking classified U.S. documents has asked a federal judge to rule that comments she made to FBI agents before her arrest can't be used as evidence.Reality Winner, a former Air Force linguist who held a top-secret security clearance, worked as a government contractor in Augusta, Georgia, until she was charged with copying a classified report and mailing it to an online news organization. The criminal complaint filed June 5 in U.S. District Court says Winner admitted to leaking the documents when she was questioned by FBI agents serving a search warrant at her apartment. Winner's defense attorneys filed a court motion Tuesday asking the judge to suppress any comments she made to the FBI in that interview because agents never read Winner her Miranda rights. Though she had not yet been formally arrested, Winner's attorneys said, she had every reason to believe she was in custody as she was questioned in a room of her apartment by two agents standing in front of the door. "Winner was never told she was free to leave, nor was she advised as to her arrest status," Winner's attorneys wrote. "Indeed, when she specifically asked whether she was under arrest, the agents told her they did not know the answer to that 'yet.'" Prosecutors had not filed any reply to the defense motion Wednesday, and there was no ruling from the judge. Meanwhile, U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian K. Epps agreed during a status hearing Wednesday to postpone Winner's trial, which had been scheduled to start in October. Posted by: Besoeker 2017-09-02 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=496437 |