The federal contractor from Georgia, who was charged Monday with leaking top-secret government information to the press, met with members of U.S. Sen. David Perdue's staff earlier this year, the Republican's office confirmed.
Reality Leigh Winner,a 25-year-old contractor with Pluribus International Corporation in Augusta, posted a selfie with her eyebrows raised outside of the first-term senator’s Atlanta office to Facebook on Feb. 14.
“A great American once told us to go out and have conversations with one another,” Winner wrote in the post, in which she also wrote she was “feeling optimistic.”
A Perdue spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday that aides from the senator's Atlanta office indeed met with Winner in February to discuss "environmental issues."
“Our team meets with hundreds of Georgians monthly to discuss issues important to them,” the spokeswoman said in a statement. She said Perdue’s office does not ask about employment in routine meetings with constituents and that Winner’s work as a federal contractor did not come up then.
"The allegations against Ms. Winner are very serious, and if true, directly threaten our national security," the spokeswoman said. "I trust our Justice Department will get to the bottom of this and handle it appropriately."
Using a pseudonym, Winner frequently posted to Twitter about her liberal political views and her revulsion of President Donald Trump and his policies. Her feeds show she was particularly passionate about climate change, refugees, Syria’s civil war and the citizens of Iran, one of the U.S.’ top adversaries.
After a friend asked about her meeting with Perdue's staff, Winner said it went "really well."
“I can’t believe I got a private, 30 minute meeting, and his state policy director is going to send me email updates on some of my concerns regarding climate change and what the state of Georgia is doing to reduce dependency on fossil fuels,” she wrote.
Winner said she also told Perdue staffers that senators should "not be afraid to directly state when our president or his cabinet tell outright lies." She said her suggestion was "well heard."
