‘BREATH OF FRESH AIR’

NSA Leaker Reality Winner Thanks Trump for Calling Her Prison Sentence ‘So Unfair’

Reality Winner was sentenced to more than five years in prison last week.

Reality Winner, a former National Security Agency contractor who pleaded guilty to leaking a classified U.S. report, thanked President Trump on Thursday for calling her 63-month prison sentence “so unfair.” “I just can’t thank him enough for finally saying what everybody has been thinking for 16 months,” Winner told CBS News over the phone Thursday. She was sentenced to more than five years in jail last week for giving the press information on Russian hacking in the 2016 elections. Following her sentence, Trump tweeted: “Ex-NSA contractor to spend 63 months in jail over ‘classified’ information. Gee, this is ‘small potatoes’ compared to what Hillary Clinton did! So unfair Jeff, Double Standard.” “The ‘small potatoes’ was a breath of fresh air. It really made me laugh,” Winner told CBS. “It reminded me of me and my own family. We try to make a joke out of everything. We laugh every single day no matter how bad things get, and he really gave a whole sense of humor to the thing ‘cause it is quite bizarre.” Winner pleaded guilty in June to violating the Espionage Act, which was originally passed in 1917 to target foreign spies.