[The Hill] WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says that a 25-year-old government contracter accused of sharing National Security Agency (NSA) documents with a media outlet "must be supported.""Alleged NSA whistleblower Reality Leigh Winner must be supported," he tweeted Monday alongside a picture of Winner. "She is a young woman accused of courage in trying to help us know."
"It doesn’t matter why she did it or the quality [of] the report," Assange added in a separate tweet. "Acts of non-elite sources communicating knowledge should be strongly encouraged."
Prosecutors earlier Monday announced that the Department of Justice had charged Winner with sharing top secret material with a media outlet.
Court documents filed by the government did not specify which outlet received the materials, but NBC News reported Monday that the information went to The Intercept online news outlet.
The Intercept published a top secret NSA report Monday that alleged Russian military intelligence launched a 2016 cyberattack on a voting software company.