New Bail Hearing Set for Sept. 29. Release Reality Now!

September 25, 2017

Reality Winner was arrested on June 6th. Although she plead not guilty to the charges against her, and has no criminal record, she’s already spent over three and a half months in jail. But why?

Officially, Reality was declared a “flight risk,” despite having no plan or inclination to avoid facing her charges in court. Reality’s parents offered their 20-acre home in Texas as collateral, declared over and over again that Reality would be welcomed home by supportive friends and family if released, and that she would not attempt to flee.

The prosecution’s argument didn’t rest on any actual evidence of her intentions, any contacts outside the country, or any other shred of concrete evidence that Reality would flee if released.

They based their argument mostly on entries in her private diary which the judge said he found “disturbing” , including a joke about burning down the White House, written shortly after Trump was elected, as well as the presence of the names of “known Islamic extremists”.

The prosecution didn’t release the context of Reality’s diary entry, just this sentence: “I want to burn the White House Down … find somewhere in Kurdistan to live. Ha-ha!”

Considered amongst the thousands of extreme statements made in public and otherwise in the wake of Trump’s shock victory, this statement doesn’t stand out.

It’s also not a big surprise that Reality would know the names of “known Islamic extremists” since she’s spent her entire adult life identifying them for the U.S. military. She joined the Air Force right out of high school in 2010 and served with distinction until 2016, when she started work as an NSA contractor. She received a medal for her work in the Air Force identifying enemy combatants on the battlefield, and has a well-documented, passionate hatred of ISIS.

But despite her record of service, and the lack of any real evidence that she is a “flight risk,” she’s being forced to wait for her trial behind bars. This makes preparing for her defense vastly more difficult, while the U.S. Department of Justice uses its unlimited resources to keep her from getting a fair trial.

The court has the chance to do the right thing

Reality’s defense team filed a motion for a new bond hearing in light of ongoing delays in her trial on September 19th. The judge in her trial granted her a new hearing scheduled for Friday, September 29th. According to a story in the Augusta Chronicle:

According to the motion and brief filed Tuesday, some of the information provided by the federal prosecution team at Winner’s June 8 detention hearing has proven to be wrong.

“(There is) new information material to the issue of pretrial detention that supports Ms. Winner’s release … information that contradicts or weakens the government’s proffer,” the motion reads.

Federal agents have scrutinized everything Winner owned, including current and outdated electronic equipment, and there is no evidence any other alleged wrongful act has been unearthed, the motion states.

Stand With Reality believes the prosecution acted in bad faith when they argued for Reality’s pre-trial detention. We believe the prosecution’s real agenda was always to force Reality to serve time for her alleged crime without having to actually convict her, as a means of making an example out of her and coercing her into a plea bargain.

Reality is innocent of her charges under the Espionage Act, and she has shown every intention to prove her innocence in court. There is no justification for continuing to hold her in jail. We’re calling on the judge to grant Reality bond in her hearing on Friday, so that she can have the right guaranteed to all Americans to prepare for her trial in March.

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