NSA whistleblower Reality Winner refuses to watch the new HBO Max docudrama that encapsulates the jarring play-by-play of her FBI interrogation because she is ‘doesn’t want to relive the trauma’ of her final moments of freedom before being arrested for leaking a classified report to the media.
Reality was working as a contractor for the agency in Augusta, Georgia, in 2017 when when she shared classified information on Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential election.
A few weeks later, Reality arrived home from the store expecting to put away her groceries, tend to her beloved pets, and prepare for her yoga class. Instead, she was met with a tense interrogation by FBI agents at her house that culminated with her arrest and three years in prison.
Now, Reality, 31, keeps a distance from any triggers that may force her to relive the trauma from that day, her lawyer, Alison Grinter, told DailyMail.com.
National Security Agency whistleblower Reality Winner has not watched the new HBO Max film starring Sydney Sweeney which is entirely adapted from her FBI interrogation
Actress Sydney Sweeney (left) plays Reality Winner (right) in the new HBO Max film ‘Reality’
A new HBO Max docudrama starring Sydney Sweeney as Reality Winner is not only ripped from the headlines, it is based entirely on the 65-minute FBI transcript verbatim from the interrogation that took place when Reality was 25 years old.
The interrogation was first played out on stage in director Tina Satter’s Broadway play in 2021. Satter also directed the film.
Reailty supports both the play and the movie, but Grinter said that she has seen not seen either of them.
‘Reliving it is the worst trigger for Reality and she has been hesitant to relive that trauma,’ Grinter said.
‘Why would she want to relive the last few moments of her freedom? These past four years have been extremely traumatic for Reality.’
Reality was the first person charged by President Trump’s Justice Department under the Espionage Act for leaking a government report to the media.
In 2018, after being kept in custody for a year, she pleaded guilty to one felony count of unauthorized transmission of national defense information.
Reality was sentenced to five years and three months in jail but freed in 2021 due to her good behavior. She will be on supervised release until 2024.
The former contractor who speaks three Middle Eastern languages, Farsi, Dari and Pashto, told CBS 60 Minutes in her first interview that she is not a traitor or a spy and that she acted ‘in service to the American people’ when she leaked classified documents to The Intercept.
Reality was the first person charged by President Trump’s Justice Department under the Espionage Act for leaking a government report to the media
Reality Winner, pictured here in 2018 outside a federal courthouse in Georgia during her espionage trial, has repeatedly said that she has no interest in reliving that trauma
Reality herself has responded to people on Twitter asking for her reaction to the movie, bluntly stating that she will not be watching it.
Instead she prefers to gush about her dogs, poll her followers about their favorite Pokémon and show off her fitness achievements.
But Reality is still not completely free. Her plea deal that bans bans her from monetizing her story, also restricts her speech, and her ability to travel for three years. On May 31, she tweeted about what she misses the most.
‘Honestly the worst thing about federal supervised release right now is the constant agonizing over CrossFit competitions I can’t go to. I want to be freeeee.’
At different times throughout the interrogation shown in the docudrama, Reality was shown worried about her cat getting out of the house while the agents came and went. She warned them that her the dog she had been fostering did not like men.
She also stressed over missing an upcoming powerlifting competition and finding coverage for a yoga class she was teaching the following day.
Reality’s lawyer, who described her as being ‘incredibly intelligent, personable, and so very funny,’ told Dailymail.com that she was clearly rattled and unsettled during the interrogation by the presence of these agents.
‘Reality is just one person, but she’s relatable to so many of us,’ Grinter said. ‘There are so many people who put themselves in her shoes – what would they have done’
Grinter added that Reality has been supportive of both the play and the film, and that she appreciates how people are putting themselves in her shoes, standing with her in solidarity.
‘Reality never wanted to be an advocate for transparency,’ Grinter added. ‘She never wanted to be a whistleblower. She never wanted to be in this position.’
The HBO Max docudrama, which began streaming on May 29, opens with Reality Winner working in a cubicle surrounded by TVs blasting Fox News that she had complained about
There is no dialogue in the opening scene, before it switches to Reality’s house in Augusta where she arrives home from the grocery store to find two FBI agents waiting for her
There is a dread to the whole endeavor from the first shot, but it takes some time for the agents to get to the real questions which causes the small stresses and indignities to build
While both the play and the film follow the transcript verbatim, there are slight changes in the visual effects to translate the story from stage to screen.
The film, which began streaming on May 29, opens with Reality working in a cubicle surrounded by TVs blasting Fox News.
It would later be revealed through Reality’s case that she had filed complaints about the conservative network being played in the office. She had suggested that Al Jazeera or even a slideshow of people’s pets would have been more appropriate.
There is no dialogue in the opening scene, before it switches to Reality’s house in Augusta where she pulls into the driveway to find two FBI agents waiting for her, and the entirety of the interrogation unfolds from there.
Every bit of the dialogue is verbatim from the transcripts, even with all the ums and ahs, botched sentences and awkward small talk.
There is a dread to the whole endeavor from the first shot, but it takes some time for the agents to get to the real questions which causes the small stresses and indignities to build.
Every bit of the dialogue is verbatim from the transcripts, even with all the ums and ahs, botched sentences and awkward small talk one might expect from actual human beings
Grinter, who saw the play and the film, thought both portrayed Reality in a good light and were able to capture her personality – also the feeling of how unsettled she felt in the interrogation
This image released by HBO shows Josh Hamilton, from left, Sydney Sweeney and Marchant Davis in a scene from ‘Reality.’ (HBO Max via AP)
Grinter, who saw both the play and the film, thought both portrayed Reality in a good light and were able to capture her personality – but also the feeling of how unsettled she felt during the interrogation.
‘As a criminal defense attorney, I was very surprised to see these interrogation techniques used on Reality,’ she said.
Grinter explained that the agents ‘conducted the interrogation inside Reality’s house to create the idea that the whole interaction was voluntary and non custodial.’
There was a motion to suppress her statements based on the fact that they were made in custody without her rights being read, she added. However, the motion wasn’t heard before Reality’s plea bargain.
The agents tell Reality they have a search warrant for her home and her car and tape off her yard with ‘crime scene’ tape, take her phone and force her to stay outside as they search
The agents then move inside, stand near her at all times before they move to the back room
In the film, the agents tell Reality they have a search warrant for her home and her car and promptly tape off her modest yard with ‘crime scene’ tape, take her phone and force her to stay outside as they search.
She’s worried about the perishables, her cat escaping through the open door and her dog – who hates men – scaring people. Meanwhile, one of the agents is asking about her CrossFit routine and her life as a single woman in Augusta.
When the trio move inside to the ‘back room’ of the house, it starts to feel suffocating, especially as the questions get more specific and accusatory.
Reality, wearing jean shorts and sneakers, does not seem aware that she has the right to not answer their questions and has the right to an attorney – and the agents certainly aren’t offering this information either.
Instead, she is deferential and even helpful to these uninvited strangers, as though being nice might help things.
Sweeney, whose range continues to astonish – from ‘Euphoria’ to ‘The White Lotus’ draws you in and you feel her stress and panic escalate.
Reality is interrogated for several hours before she hits a breaking point and admits her crime
Sweeney in a scene from ‘Reality’ looks back at her house before she’s taken into custody
Another look into Reality’s life is set to be released in the form of a documentary by director and producer Sonia Kennebeck later this fall.
The recently released trailer begins with Reality speaking to the camera.
‘If you were to go into a time machine to May 2017 and turn on any news media any channel there was one question mark hanging in the air — and that one question mark was holding the entire country back.
‘I thought with a couple pieces of paper, I could bring an end to that crisis. And that’s how we got here.’
Reality continues with how her day began on June 3, 2017.
‘June 3rd started as a wonderful day. I drove up to my house. I had a car full of groceries and soon as I had closed the door and gone around to the back of the car, this unmarked black SUV came up and…’
What follows is the exchange between Reality and the FBI agents – already heard in the play and the docudrama.
‘I didn’t realize that it was about to become a four-hour chess game for my life.’
At the time of her arrest, Winter was a linguist in an elite combat unit engaged in secret missions for the US service
At the time of her arrest, Winter was a linguist in an elite combat unit engaged in secret missions for the US service.
‘I’m still stained by them accusing me of being the same groups that I enlisted in the Air Force to fight against,’ Reality said in a previous interview. She won the Air Force Commendation Medal in 2016 for ‘600 enemies killed in action.’
For the majority of her six years in the Air Force, Winter served at a duty station in Fort Meade, Maryland, where she and other linguists eavesdropped on communications from 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan, to identify targets for armed drones.
In Georgia, as she waited for the call to report to a country in the Middle East, she begrudgingly put in her time at NSA’s Fort Gordon duty station translating Farsi documents to English.
For the majority of her six years in the Air Force, Winter served at a duty station in Fort Meade, Maryland, where she and other linguists eavesdropped on communications from 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan, to identify targets for armed drones
Former National Security Agency contractor Reality Winner told CBS’ 60 Minutes in 2022 that she’s not a traitor and acted in ‘service to the American people’ when she leaked classified documents on Russian meddling in the 2016 US election
In the days and weeks after Reality printed the classified document, slipped it into her pantyhose and sent it off to The Intercept, nothing happened, so she moved on.
But everything changed for Reality on June 3, 2017, when she arrived home with groceries and two men in polo shirts introduced themselves as FBI agents.
She was then interrogated by the agents, in an exchange that an official FBI transcript alleges was ‘voluntary.’
But Reality told 60 Minutes Scott Pelley in a 2021 interview that the pair never mentioned her right to have an attorney present.
After looking at the circumstances of her case, feds hit Winter with the most serious possible charge for her actions – espionage.
At the time, U.S. Attorney Bobby L. Christine said of Winner’s crimes, that the agent’s ‘willful, purposeful disclosure caused exceptionally grave damage to U.S. national security.’
Reality was denied bail for her discretions as well, after prosecutors argued during her trail that Winner had a fascination with the Middle East and Islamic terrorism.
Reality fills her social media pages with her fitness accomplishments, like Crossfit, weightlifting competitions and races where she runs for veterans
The government further claimed that they had found handwritten notes during a search at Reality’s home which appeared to sympathize with Osama bin Laden and other terrorists.
According to prosecutors, Reality was maddened by Trump’s election into office, citing a passage from Winner’s diary that read: ‘I want to burn the White House down and go live in Kurdistan.’
They argued she could potentially defect to the Taliban.
After an exhaustive trial the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, Winner was found guilty and sentenced to more than five years in federal prison. She was released in June 2021 after serving just four years at the Fort Worth prison, on ‘good behavior.’
During her televised talk with Pelley, Reality detailed how the tumultuous period of her life deteriorated her mental health, inducing a state of intense depression on the then 25-year-old intelligence specialist, that nearly brought her to suicide.
