Former US intelligence contractor sentenced to five years for leaking Russian hacking information News
Former US intelligence contractor sentenced to five years for leaking Russian hacking information

Former US intelligence contractor Reality Winner was sentenced to 63 months in prison on Thursday after she accepted a plea deal [BBC report] with federal prosecutors in June.

Winner pleaded guilty to charges [indictment, PDF] of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.

In May 2017 Winner kept a classified National Security Agency report concerning a Russian cyberattack on a voting software supplier that took place days before the 2016 US presidential election and later leaked it [document] to The Intercept.

Initially, Winner pleaded not guilty but later changed her plea to avoid a possible 10-year prison sentence.

She was originally arrested [BBC report] in June 2017, two days before The Intercept released the documents that it had received from her. The Intercept’s accompanying story highlighted the report’s allegation that it was Russia’s Military Intelligence Directorate that carried out the cyberattacks.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Montgomery started racially-integrated bus service after boycott

On December 21, 1956, buses in Montgomery, Alabama, started racially integrated service following federal court rulings ending on-board segregation. Bus boycott leaders Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and Rev. Ralph Abernathy were among the first riders under the new scheme. Learn about the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

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On December 21, 1879, Joseph Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia. In 1922, he became leader of the USSR until his death in 1953. During his time as Soviet dictator, Stalin industrialized his country, which he then led to become one of the world's two superpowers after WWII. Through his infamous purges, show trials and nationwide famines, Stalin also became responsible for millions of deaths.