Reality Winner, the 25-year-old federal contractor charged with leaking top secret information to the media, has a long social media trail of liberal political posts and is a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Winner also hates President Donald Trump, once posting that the president is a "piece of s***" over his moves to stop protests against the Dakota Access pipeline. Her social media posts have included #notmypresident as well as calls to #resist over Trump's environmental policies as well as DAPL.
Winner also is a former Air Force linguist who speaks Middle East languages Pashto, Farsi and Dari, her mother, Billie Winner-Davis, told The Guardian.
"I never thought this would be something she would do," Winner-Davis told The Guardian. "I mean, she has expressed to me that she is not a fan of Trump – but she's not someone who would go and riot or picket."
Still, her Facebook and Twitter feeds are loaded with political rants against Trump, ranging from criticism of his plan to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants and to his environmental agenda.
Winner had been an employee of federal contractor Pluribus International since February and had a top-secret clearance. The Justice Department did not say what she was accused of leaking, nor did it identify the media outlet that received the information, but the DOJ announcement of the charges came within an hour of The Intercept posting a story about leaked documents on Russian hacking attempts in the 2016 presidential election.
The date of the document in the DOJ release also matched the one in the Intercept story: May 5, 2017.
"I don't know what the hacking thing all means," Winner's monther told The Guardian. "Has it made a difference in the election? Who knows."
Winner faces a possible 10-year prison sentence if convicted.
According to The Daily Caller, Winner is a supporter of Sanders, I-Vt., who describes himself as a "democratic socialist." He failed in his attempt to win the Democratic presidential nomination against Hillary Clinton, but amassed a loyal group of supporters.
Winner also backed liberal causes such as the Women's March and backed the Muslim civil rights group, the Islamic Society of North America, the Caller reported.
Winner's mother told The Daily Beast her daughter did not discuss the case with her when she spoke by phone Sunday night, instead only asking her mother to help her find homes for her pets.
"She's a beautiful girl," Winner-Davis told The Guardian. "Everyone who meets her loves her, and she's kind."