Speaker 1: It's the first criminal lead case under President Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: who's vowed to crack down on government workers who illegally
Speaker 1: leak information. The Justice Department announced the espionage charges against
Speaker 1: a government intelligence contractor shortly after the online news outlet
Speaker 1: The Intercept published what it said was an n essay
Speaker 1: report detailing Russian hacking efforts in the days before the
Speaker 1: twenty six election. The twenty five year old contractor, a
Speaker 1: former US Air Force linguist Reality Lee winner, has been
Speaker 1: working at the firm for less than four months, joining
Speaker 1: us as Patricia Hutado, who covered Manhattan federal courts for
Speaker 1: Bloomberg and wrote this story, pat did this leaked material
Speaker 1: contain new confidential information? Yeah, according to the government, it
Speaker 1: was a top secret report that if it got into
Speaker 1: if it dissonated publicly, would harm the United States because
Speaker 1: of them the information obtained, And so they're they're holding
Speaker 1: that in very high regard, of high concern that it
Speaker 1: got leaked out to the media and published. Patty, what
Speaker 1: do we know about how the government tracked down this
Speaker 1: woman as the alleged leaker. Well, apparently they became they
Speaker 1: were notified when the Intercept it says it doesn't identify
Speaker 1: the news organization, but they said they were UH contacted.
Speaker 1: A government contractor was contacted by a online media reporter
Speaker 1: saying that they had obtained in the mail some documents
Speaker 1: and they wanted to tell them about it and have
Speaker 1: them review it to to determine if they were legitimate
Speaker 1: and UM real. And so the contractor UH immediately became
Speaker 1: concerned about what the data was on the allegedly on
Speaker 1: about in subject matter and basically asked the media report
Speaker 1: of the online reporter to take a photo copy and
Speaker 1: center copy to see what it looked like. And based
Speaker 1: on what that document was sent to them, they determined
Speaker 1: and they were also told that it was mail from Augusta,
Speaker 1: Georgia that they'd obtained in the mail from Augusta, Georgia. UM,
Speaker 1: the government tracked back on the document. Apparently only six
Speaker 1: people ever viewed this document, and UM only hers was
Speaker 1: the web the desktop that they had downloaded and printed
Speaker 1: out the material and then they suggested was folded and
Speaker 1: carried out on her person out of the office patty.
Speaker 1: She had top secret security clearance and worked at this
Speaker 1: government contractor for less than four months, and she admitted
Speaker 1: to FBI agents that she leaked the information to the
Speaker 1: news outlet, knowing quote the contents of the reporting could
Speaker 1: be used to the injury of the US and to
Speaker 1: the advantage of a foreign nation. According to the warrant,
Speaker 1: is there something seriously wrong with the process for getting
Speaker 1: tops curity clearance if something like this happens so fast,
Speaker 1: you know, it's unclear. I mean, she had worked as
Speaker 1: for the United States arm Air Force for um at
Speaker 1: least four to five years prior to this, and she
Speaker 1: was an airman. She had worked as a linguist. She
Speaker 1: apparently came with great credentials. Now we're now seeing social
Speaker 1: media postings that she's put out where she sounds like
Speaker 1: she's got, you know, opinions and political beliefs, and whether
Speaker 1: or not that was vetted. Um, she was working for
Speaker 1: a legitimate government contractor for this U S intelligence agency
Speaker 1: that's unnamed. So maybe people are going to go back
Speaker 1: now and review. Maybe the vetting process needs to be
Speaker 1: a little more thorough before they scrub someone, to make
Speaker 1: sure that they don't, you know, have someone that might
Speaker 1: have some kind of animus or some opinions. Donald Trump
Speaker 1: has spent a lot of time talking and tweeting about
Speaker 1: cracking down on leakers of of UH top secret information.
Speaker 1: Do we anticipate that this case is going to be
Speaker 1: the first of many or is this just a one
Speaker 1: off where UH somebody perhaps was so slopping the way
Speaker 1: that that she leaked the information that it was easy
Speaker 1: for for the FBI to tracker down. Well, we don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, what we do know is that the obviously
Speaker 1: the report was actually giving UM ballast to UM the
Speaker 1: argument that Russians, the Russian government had probably hacked into
Speaker 1: UM election systems, and this was kind of indicating there
Speaker 1: were some content they were outside city contractors that worked
Speaker 1: with the election system that had been compromised by a
Speaker 1: Russian UH by Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate or
Speaker 1: g r U. So this is like a real Russian
Speaker 1: hacking governmental agency. So UM, whether or not the you know,
Speaker 1: the Trump administration wants to crack down on more people
Speaker 1: that dallas to the argument that the Russians hacked the
Speaker 1: US election and we're trying to influence it remains to
Speaker 1: be seen. We do know that the Obama administration really
Speaker 1: clamped down on hackers and during the you know, the
Speaker 1: the Obama administration coming down against people like Chelsea Manning
Speaker 1: and others for leaking material to the to the press
Speaker 1: and making it public. And Patty, how much time is
Speaker 1: she facing if convicted. Um, Well, it's unclear. I mean,
Speaker 1: she did confess to the crime, but she's still at
Speaker 1: this point. She has an appearance on Thursday, um, and
Speaker 1: it's a detention hearing, so the government moves to keep
Speaker 1: her in custody, saying that she's too much of a threat.
Speaker 1: Right now, they're apparently going through all of her computer
Speaker 1: records and all of it. They've done a search of
Speaker 1: her home in Augusta, and she could face up to
Speaker 1: ten years in prison if she's convicted. Well, I'm sure
Speaker 1: that you will be at that hearing and giving us
Speaker 1: the news from and thanks so much for being on
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Law. That's Patricia Hurtado. She covers the Manhattan federal
Speaker 1: courts for Bloomberg