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Reality Leigh Winner, a convicted leaker who recently contracted the novel coronavirus in federal prison, received further pushback from the U.S. government Friday in her bid to be released early.
The Department of Justice said in a court filing that Winner recently tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, but appears to be asymptomatic and should stay imprisoned.
In a supplemental brief entered in federal appeals court, the Justice Department said it stands by the claims it previously made against granting Winner’s request for compassionate release.
“The government continues to assert the arguments raised in its original response brief,” U.S. Attorney Bobby L. Christine wrote in the latest filing in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Filed late last month, the reply brief cited by Mr. Christine argued that Winner failed to demonstrate she is worthy of being released early and asked the federal appeals court to agree.
Winner, an Air Force veteran and former intelligence contractor, pleaded guilty in 2018 to a single charge of illegally transmitting classified information —specifically a document about Russian election interference she leaked to The Intercept news site – and was accordingly sentenced to spend 63 months in federal prison.
She asked in April to finish her sentence under home confinement due to concerns about potentially contracting COVID-19 amid the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, arguing her history of bulimia and depression makes her particularly at risk. That request for compassionate release for rejected by a district court judge in Savannah, Georgia, however, causing her lawyers to challenge that ruling early last month in the Eleventh Circuit.
Winner subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 last week, leading her legal team to file an emergency motion Wednesday urging the appeals court to consider the “dangerous” and “dire” conditions at the federal medical prison where she contracted the coronavirus, FMC Carswell, before ruling on her request.
Mr. Christine responded in the latest filing Friday that Winner was ordered tested for COVID-19 on July 3 based on an outbreak at the FMC Carswell and was tested on July 7 and again on July 15.
“While appellant states in her most recent filing that she has now tested positive for COVID-19, it appears that she is asymptomatic,” wrote Mr. Christine, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
“On July 19, 2020, lab work confirmed that the July 15, 2020, sample tested positive for COVID-19,” he explained. “The next day, on July 20, 2020, lab work confirmed that that the July 7, 2020, sample tested positive for COVID-19.”
The Bureau of Prisons has told the Justice Department that Winner is currently “housed in an isolation unit with other COVID-19 positive inmates who are asymptomatic or exhibiting minimal symptoms,” Mr. Christine added.
More than 500 inmates at FMC Carswell — more than one-third of the facility’s population — have tested positive for COVID-19 as of earlier this week, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
“While we do not comment on a specific inmate’s conditions of confinement or pending litigation, we can share that we are deeply concerned for the health and welfare of those inmates who are entrusted to our care and it is our highest priority to continue to do everything we can to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our facilities,” BOP told The Washington Times earlier this week.
It was not clear when the Eleventh Circuit would rule on Winner’s appeal. She is currently scheduled to be released from prison in November 2021.