Former Air Force linguist pleads guilty to leaking U.S. secrets

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) - A woman accused of leaking U.S. secrets to a news outlet pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Georgia.

Reality Winner, 26, entered her guilty plea after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors that calls for her to serve five years and three months behind bars, news outlets reported. A judge will sentence her later.

Winner has been held without bail since she was arrested in June 2017 and charged under the Espionage Act.

She is a former Air Force linguist who speaks Arabic and Farsi and had top-secret security clearance. She worked for the national security contractor Pluribus International at Fort Gordon when she was charged in 2017 with copying a classified U.S. report and mailing it to an unidentified news organization.

The Justice Department announced Winner's arrest on the same day The Intercept reported it had obtained a classified National Security Agency report suggesting Russian hackers attacked a U.S. voting software supplier before the 2016 presidential election.

The NSA report was dated May 5, the same as the document Winner was accused of leaking.