Reality Winner - yes that is her real name - made the grave mistake of pointing out that the Russians were hacking election machines to help Donald [Prince of Orange] Trump get elected. It could have been a lot worse, she was down to do ten years for the “crime” of saving US democracy from a foreign power. However, she managed to score a plea deal.

Winner was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and no fine, except for a $100 special assessment fee.

US District Court Judge J. Randal Hall in Augusta, Georgia, was not bound to follow the plea deal, but elected to give Winner the amount of time prosecutors requested.

Winner, 26, who was a contractor with the National Security Agency, pleaded guilty in June to copying a classified report that detailed the Russian government's efforts to penetrate a Florida-based voting software supplier.

US intelligence agencies later confirmed Russia had meddled in the election. A leaked document that was published by the online news outlet The Intercept in June 2017 bore the same 5 May date as the NSA report that Winner had leaked.

The Justice Department announced it had arrested Winner on the same day as the Intercept report came out.

Winner told the court: "I would like to apologise profusely for my actions. I want to apologise to my family. Nothing is worth time spent away from loved ones."

Winner's attorneys called her a good person with an otherwise clean criminal record and said that she suffers from depression and bulimia.

Winner had a top secret security clearance while working for national security contractor Pluribus International at Fort Gordon in Georgia when she was charged.