Billie Winner-Davis, Reality Winner's mother, told Business Insider on Tuesday that President Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, is attempting legal representation to aid the former Air Force language analyst contractor and Kingsville native Reality Winner with her case.
Winner pleaded guilty in 2018 to leaking classified National Security Agency information on Russia's alleged efforts to interfere with the 2016 election. She was found guilty of violating the U.S. Espionage Act and sentenced to five years in prison at the Federal Medical Center-Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.
In 2016 following her separation from six years of active duty, Winner was hired by Pluribus International Corporation under an NSA contract to work out of Fort Gordon, Georgia.
According to ABC News, Winner printed a classified report detailing how Russian hackers allegedly “executed cyber espionage operations” on local election systems and mailed the documents to The Intercept.
She was arrested on June 3, 2017.
Amazing! Thank you. My daughter Reality Leigh Winner is yet another victim of this admin. Doing hard time for bringing the truth to light. #FreeRealityWinnerhttps://t.co/wU0sg3LeRs
Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to campaign violations and tax fraud in 2018, began serving his sentence in May 2019 at the federal penitentiary in Otisville, New York.
He has been under house arrest since July over coronavirus concerns.
Military.com stated that Reality’s mother sent a Twitter message that said “Cohen has asked another attorney to look at the case and for opportunities to help.”
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"I CAN'T BREATHE !": Minneapolis man dies after police confrontation
May 26, 2020
Warning This is going to be difficult ...
A video (below) taken by an onlooker Monday evening shows a Minneapolis police officer keeping his knee on the neck of a motionless, moaning man at the foot of a squad car. The man later died.
A police statement said officers were responding to a "forgery in progress."
"Officers were advised that the suspect was sitting on top of a blue car and appeared to be under the influence," the statement said. "Two officers arrived and located the suspect, a male believed to be in his 40s, in his car. He was ordered to step from his car.
"After he got out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance," according to the statement.
The man died soon after, the statement said, adding: "At no time were weapons of any type used by anyone involved in this incident. … Body-worn cameras were on and activated during this incident."
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said at a press conference Tuesday that the FBI will lead the investigation into the incident due to the possible civil rights violation.
Two of the officers involved have been "relieved of duty status," Arradondo said. The officers are still receiving pay, but have no law enforcement duties.
The video, captured by Darnella Frazier, begins with the man, who is black, groaning and repeatedly saying "I can't breathe" to the officer who has his knee on the man's neck. The officer is white.
"Please," the man pleads. "I can't breathe," and continues to moan. An officer keeps insisting he gets in the car, while the man repeatedly says he can't.
"My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts. … (I need) water or something. Please. Please. I can't breathe, officer. … I cannot breathe. I cannot breathe." That was followed by more groaning.
A female bystander points out the subject's nose is bleeding.
In an ongoing commentary permeated by cursing, a male onlooker says: "That's bulls—t, Bro. You're stopping his breathing right there, Bro. Get him off the ground, Bro. You're being a bum right now."
The man says the officer is "enjoying that. He's a bum, Bro. You could have put him in the car by now. He's not resisting arrest or nothing. You're enjoying it. Look at you. Your body language — you bum. You know that's bogus right now."
The female onlooker repeatedly urges the officers to check the subject's pulse. "He's not responsive right now," a bystander says. "He's not moving." An ambulance then arrives and takes the man away.
"You just really killed that man, Bro," the male onlooker says to the officer.
Frazier, who took the video, wrote on Facebook: "They killed him right in front of cup foods over south on 38th and Chicago!! No type of sympathy 💔💔#POLICEBRUTALITY."
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the man's death "simply awful," and "wrong at every level" at the press conference Tuesday.
"For the better part of the night I've been trying to find the words to describe what happened and all I keep coming back to is that he should not have died," Frey said.
"What we saw was horrible, completely and utterly messed up," he said. "This man's life matters, he matters. He was someone's son, someone's family member, someone's friend. He was a human being and his life mattered."
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