Kingsville Native Embroiled In NSA Probe Over Leaked Documents

KINGSVILLE, TX — Not much ever happens in Kingsville, Texas, a coastal town that, in a good year, counts 30,000 residents in its population where an upcoming day-long farmers market and a "Patriotic Celebration Parade" downtown are both shaping up to become this year's major community focal points.

But the South Texas town that is part of the larger Corpus Christi-Kingsville combined statistical area has suddenly been thrust into the realm of political intrigue and high-stakes brinkmanship worthy of a Robert Ludlum novel or John le Carré page turner. The sleepy coastal town has been awakened following the arrest of a young woman who grew up there—with a name straight out Central Casting—after being accused of leaking classified intelligence information to a news website.

Until recently, Reality Winner, 25, had top security clearance as a federal contractor. But now she's being held after allegedly leaking documents to the website The Intercept report comes amid a backdrop of a broader investigation into whether Russia meddled in last year's U.S. general election.

Suddenly, Kingsville has been thrust into an unwelcome limelight. Few details are known about Winner about her formative years spent in Kingsville before she moved to Georgia. But in the wake of the scandal, locals have adopted the hushed, non-committal tones of government officials when asked even basic information about suddenly imbued with a high-stakes aura of import.

"I cannot confirm or deny that she was ever one of our students," a palpably nervous Carol Perez, the superintendent of Kingsville Independent School District superintendent told the Kingsville Record newspaper, even as the information is easily accessible. Winner attended H.M. King high School in 2010 before completing her basic training for the U.S. Air Force in March 2011, according to reports.

Citing citing vague privacy laws, Perez wouldn't even confirm the year Winner graduated from the high school, let alone what clubs she belonged to in rebuffing the local newspaper's request on Tuesday. What the superintendent may or may not have known is that Winner's name and graduation photo were included in a special graduation section that ran in the Kingsville Record and Bishop News in May 2010, listing her as a H.M. King High School grad, as the newspaper noted in its report.

More information on her can be gleaned from her Facebook page, where she notes her honorable discharge from the military this past November. Federal officials have since confirmed she's worked since February for Pluribus International, a company working with the National Security Agency in Georgia where she now lives.

According to NBC News, the classified report Winner is accused of leaking is related to Russian hacking of U.S. voting systems a week before the 2016 presidential election. While it's still unknown what effect, if any, the hacking had on the outcome of the election, the known interference is now the subject of a growing investigation involving a myriad cast of characters:

• Donald Trump, the president of the United States, embroiled in an unfolding international scandal he dismisses intermittently as "fake news" and a "witch hunt."
• James Comey, the former FBI director fired by the president while poised to investigate his commander-in-chief relationship with Russian operatives now set to testify at a congressional hearing on Thursday.
• Jeff Sessions, the elderly attorney general recusing himself from helping investigate the matter amid evidence of his own meetings with Russians.
• Sean Spicer, the beleaguered press secretary extending the tactics of linguistic acrobatics in a desperate bid to protect his president while struggling to answer to reporters' growing questions.
• The shadowy figure of Jared Kushner, confidante and son-in-law of the president who many have never heard actually speak at all, let alone wax eloquent about the scandal.
• Vladimir Putin, the Russian autocrat who has said nyet, there was no official involvement in the hacking while inferring it may have been undertaken by some of his patriotic compatriots.
• Al Franken, the dogged senator pursuing the truth while offering occasional comic relief to the unfolding drama.

In this layered cast of protagonists, antagonists, anti-heroes and supporting players, Winner has emerged but with limited character development. Just who is Reality Winner? And what were her motivations? Little is known of the young woman being compared by some as the Texas version of Edward Snowden.

Unlike the nervous superintendent, District 27 U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold didn't demure when asked to opine about Winner, even while betraying with his words that he knows about as much about her as the rest of us. Farenthold's district encompasses the city of Kingsville.

“If you’ve got a legitimate gripe about what the government is doing, there’s channels for you to be a whistleblower that doesn’t compromise classified information,” he told the Kingsville Record. “This spat of people taking matters into their own hands and releasing information that could potentially hamper ongoing investigations or operations really is disturbing.”

Like any politician worth his salt, Farenthold managed to insert a vibe of patriotism in his own take, a tacit nod appealing to his constituents' nationalistic stirrings: “It’s disappointing – the Coastal Bend area and generally most of Texas are usually very largely patriotic,” he added. “You just kind of don’t expect to see this coming from home.”

While we don't know much about Winner yet, we know she's a young lady who suddenly finds herself in a world of trouble after being accused of printing and removing the classified document from her office before mailing it to the news outlet. If convicted of a sole count of "gathering, transmitting or losing defense information," she could face up to 10 years in federal prison.

We do know Winner is no fan of the president's, calling him "a soulless ginger orangutan" in a Facebook rant about climate change three months ago, as Time magazine reported. We also know from social media that she enjoys weight lifting and teaching the occasional yoga class.

"She's got a good heart," her mother, Billie Winner-Davis told reporters outside her small, red-brick Texas home, as reported by the magazine. "She serves her community, she served her country. She believes in always doing what's right."

"I know my daughter," added stepfather Gary Davis, who told reporters Winner turned down a full college scholarship in order to join the U.S. Air Force. "She's a patriot. She served with distinction in one of the highest classified jobs in the Air Force."

We also know that Winner was concerned about her cat, asking her parents during a weekend call if they could travel to her Augusta, Ga., home to feed the animal, Time reported.

And we know she's scared. Armed FBI agents surrounded the young woman this week as she walked inside her home after a trip to the grocery store. "She said she was very scared," her mom told CNN. "They took her by surprise. She was not expecting any of this."

Neither, one might argue, was the town of Kingville where residents are looking forward to the billed "Patriotic Celebration Parade" at 100 Kleberg Ave. in the heart of the city's downtown on July 1.

With the H.M. King High School grad's emergence as an albeit small player in the national drama developing before all of us, this year's Independence Day parade in Kingsville will doubtless be suffused with more complex strains of patriotism—heretofore likely unfelt or unseen in the small Texas coastal town—as participants interpret Winner's motivation along the expansive, rocky divide between patriotism and treason.

>>> Photo of Reality Leigh Winner via Facebook