NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner Tests Positive for Covid-19 in Prison

By Jonathan Franklin, Guardian UK

21 July 20

Winner says guards are mocking infected prisoners and that cleaning and isolation practices are inadequate

eality Winner, an NSA whistleblower imprisoned for leaking secrets about Russian interference in America’s 2016 elections, has tested positive for Covid-19 and says guards are mocking infected prisoners at FMC Carswell, the Fort Worth all-women’s prison where more than 500 inmates are now confirmed positive.

“The officer went out of her way to come to my room and say, ‘I just wanted to congratulate you on your positive results’.” Winner wrote in an email sent early Monday to her sister Brittany.

Winner, who is serving a 63-month sentence, has repeatedly denounced inadequate cleaning and isolation practices in FMC Carswell, the US federal government’s only specialized medical prison for female prisoners with underlying health conditions.

“They allowed someone positive from our unit to go to a hospital unit where dialysis and chemo patients live, starting the infection spread down there,” Winner wrote on Monday.

“[Winner] has had bronchial problems and some issues with bulimia and we know that she is considered to be medically vulnerable,” said Alison Grinter, a civil rights attorney based in Dallas, Texas.

Despite weeks of pleas for cleaning supplies and commissary privileges, attorneys, health providers and even the guard’s union are all denouncing the rudimentary protocols inside FMC Carswell.

Cloth face masks were given to the prisoners weeks ago but crowded four to a cell, the virus spread rapidly through a population of prisoners considered to be high risk with medical conditions including cancer and chronic illnesses including diabetes.

“They are all sitting together in a concrete room facing the real possibility of dying hundreds of miles away from their family. That is a shared experience that is terrifying,” said Grinter, one of the defense lawyers working the case.

Winner was the first person the Trump administration charged under the Espionage Act for leaking documents.

Prosecutors said Winner, who was working for a defense contractor, printed a classified document that revealed Russian military intelligence hacking of at least one voting software supplier and had attempted to breach more than 100 local election systems before the 2016 election.

Confirmed cases at FMC Carswell have soared and two prisoners have died including Andrea Circle Bear who was infected while pregnant, had her child by emergency caesarean, then died four weeks after her baby was born.

“Reality is concerned that she is going to die in there. Her concern before was that she would test positive, which she just did and now she is concerned that she is going to get sick and they are not going to be able to do anything to help her,” said her sister Brittany Winner in an interview from Virginia.

“She qualifies for compassionate release. We applied. She is appealing. It’s like a race against time to get her out of there before she gets sick. And before it is too late.”