Reality Winner

This expose of the persecution of Reality Winner (yes, that is really her name) was made possible because of a Freedom of Information Act that finally resulted in the release of the audio of Reality's interrogation by eleven FBI agents.

The director of this based-on-fact film is Sonia Kennebeck. A famous name, Wim Wenders, the 75-year-old thrice-Oscar-nominated German director, served as executive producer.

Another famous face and voice is that of international whistleblower Edward Snowden, interviewed onscreen, who released NSA classified documents to the Washington Post and The Guardian in June of 2013 and has been in exile ever since. Snowden makes the point that the only thing the authorities want to hear from you in such a case is a "yes" or a "no" to the question of whether or not an NSA employee with a Top Secret Security Clearance voluntarily released information.

Reality Winner---so named by her deceased father, because his wife picked the name of their firstborn, so he was allowed to select the second child's name---was a supporter of Bernie Sanders. In the course of her work in Augusta, Georgia, she came into possession of the documents that proved that Russia was trying to meddle in the presidential race of 2016 at a time when this fact was being disputed by the Republican party.

Reality was held over a year in jail without bond and charged with the crime in violation of 18 USC/793, the Espionage and Censorship Act, written in 1917 for World War I. The law makes it a crime to provide national defense information to a foreign government, even though the document did not endanger national security.

Despite the fact that Reality Winner had a spotless background and had, in fact, served 6 years in the Air Force, her decision to make public the document that proved Russian meddling has cost her everything---her freedom, her job, her life. She not only was held one full year without being granted bond, she is one of only 8 people ever to be sentenced under the act. She received the toughest sentence of any of them: 63 months in prison, plus 3 months of supervised release.

At first, Reality denied sending the document to "The Intercept." She said she remembered she had folded the document and put it in the burn bag. After being held in jail without bond and without trial for a year, she admitted that she folded the piece of paper and smuggled it out in her pantyhose. She sent it (with a Georgia postmark) to The Intercept for publication. Matthew Cole and Richard Esposito, two reporters for "The Intercept" contacted the FBI. Another such individual (who spent 2 years in prison for a similar crime), said, "They single-handedly got her arrested."

When the eleven agents swooped down on Reality's home, they were aware that she had written online, "The most dangerous thereat is the orange threat we let into the White House." They knew of her support for Bernie Sanders. They did not, however, ever bother to read her her Miranda rights and did their best to get her to confess guilt in a casual fashion.

Then, the government sat on the documents for over 2 years. The document that proved Russia's involvement in meddling in our presidential election is now public. It never imperiled our national security. It is fairly obvious that Reality Winner was going to be made into an example to dissuade "leakers" within the Trump Administration. She was recently denied a pardon on compassionate grounds.

The feeling you come away with after the film is that Reality Winner was trying to live up to a patriotic ideal that her father and mother had imbued in her since birth. She held out for a very long time before admitting to the mailing of the document. Conviction was a foregone conclusion, as the paperwork bore a certain "code" that would prove it had been her duty to handle it (she usually handled questions about Iranian air space and spoke Farsi, Darsh and Pashto). The details about the folded paper, plus the postmark, marked this native of Kingsville, Texas for a tough road ahead. As Reality said to her sister, "That's my whole life. That's all I had."

She did put up a good fight, writing, from jail, "This is the worst summer camp ever. There aren't even any bears."

Reality was 25 when indicted and her actions at no time put United States security into jeopardy, but her actions did clear up the unanswered question about whether or not the Russians were actively working to subvert our free and fair elections. The revelation put us in a much better position to safeguard our 2020 election from any foreign interference.

It's a cautionary tale for our time. It's certainly not the last or only unfair thing we are learning about Donald J. Trump's time in office.

There is a significant reason to watch the documentary about Reality Winner -- the fact that the justice system, in its unbelievable lack of insight, is willing to sentence her to serve a 5-year prison term says volumes about the insidiousness of our twisted democratic ideals.

In Reality's case, when she found out that there was a definite attempt to manipulate the election by Russian insiders, her actions should be rewarded with a medal of honor -- instead, she was vilified and chastised for telling the American public that our country is being decimated by outside forces. What could possibly be more honorable? The mere suggestion that she was un-American is completely manipulated and false. Her intentions were nothing but selfless and attempts to rescue our democratic way of life.

But the Justice system does not see this case for what it is, a blatant attempt by the multi-headed hydra that is the Trump-era brand Republican movement to silence anyone that could be antithetical to the dictatorial regime that they would like to impose. So Reality had to be shut away from any news media, from anyone who could even give her any support, including her own family.

The documentary centers on Reality's Mom, Billie, who shows herself to be as selfless as her daughter and who works night and day to see that the case against her daughter is reversed, to no avail. Finally, we watch as Reality is silenced again and again, and the futility in Billie's face and voice is almost too difficult to witness.

Kudos to the micro crew that brought her story to the public, and the film is well put together, with only a couple of minor flaws. When Reality calls in (which is the only way we can hear her voice, since she is forbidden from talking to the media), we sometimes miss some words as a result of the tinny phone speaker. This is a minor issue, and could have been easily dealt with by adding some captions to the video.

One other, very minor point -- the name "Reality" is explained quite late in the film -- as one of the big questions in everyone's mind is, how did she ever win such a great name? Was it a trick of fate, or was she destined to be remembered for the amazing person she turned out to be?