Former NSA staffer Reality Winner’s mother has turned to Donald Trump asking to pardon her daughter after his comments today denouncing the sentence as "so unfair" and a "double standard," thereby referring to Hillary Clinton getting away with repeatedly spreading classified information. The tweet naturally sparked a wealth of memes, centered around Hillary’s debacle as well as the much debated email leakage controversy and her opposition to Trump:
Ex-NSA contractor to spend 63 months in jail over “classified” information. Gee, this is “small potatoes” compared to what Hillary Clinton did! So unfair Jeff, Double Standard.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 24 августа 2018 г.
— 🇺🇸🏈👠PatsGirl™✈️🌈 (@PatsGirlUSA) 24 августа 2018 г.
— debra lynn smith (@debralynnsmith3) 24 августа 2018 г.
And considering what YOU have done, she should be completely exonerated. (Hillary has ALREADY been found innocent) pic.twitter.com/iZgnHUtiHw
— Dawn 🌊 Marie🌴❄☮ (@Dawno8385) 24 августа 2018 г.
#LockHerUp pic.twitter.com/plLTDhpaPr
— Jenapher B (@Jenapher_B) 24 августа 2018 г.
— stella (@bastagirl11) 24 августа 2018 г.
Billie J. Winner-Davis has been regularly updating her “Justice4Reality” account on Twitter as part of an ongoing campaign to free her 26-year-old daughter.
“You have the power to undo this and pardon my daughter Reality Winner!! Please I am asking you for justice,” she most recently tweeted, inviting loads of polarized comments.
Many Twitter users have brought in another whistleblower, notorious WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, while calling Trump to heed Winner-Davis’s request.
“If Trump was a man who makes deals, he should take this one and also pardon @JulianAssange Otherwise it is going to continue to get more and more publicly humiliating for him and his family and entire cabinet in congress,” one user stated, with another one chiming in:
“I hope that Donald Trump Pardons her and @JulianAssange.”
However, the opposite point of view can also be observed in the comments.
“I think the point that needs to be made here is your daughter was wrong and should be in jail. Along with Hillary and anyone else passing secrets,” one user soberly stated, with many sharing the same stance.
Nope she deserves to goto prison. So do others as well. She broke the law. She's a criminal. We just need one law for all.
— crypt0morph (@crypt0morph) 24 августа 2018 г.
Another user opted to draw a line between “pardoning” and “doing justice:”
A pardon is no justice but it is forgiveness. We should do it more often after things come into the light.
— One Moment (@MonumentaN) 24 августа 2018 г.
Some couldn’t resist speculations on convicted NSA staffer’s name.
You need to be sentenced for naming her Reality. If she changed her name from something else to Reality, she should stay in jail.
— Great🍽Chef (@noloiusiana) 24 августа 2018 г.
Many users picked up on the caomparison with Clinton, implied in Trump’s tweet:
I believe @realDonaldTrump should pardon her. Not because she doesn’t deserve punishment for her actions. But because laws are not applied equally to all US Citizens. Until the Elites like HRC are held accountable for crimes, how can we hold Reality accountable? EQUAL TREATMENT!
— Trumps Squirrel🐿 (@TrumpsSquirrel) 24 августа 2018 г.
This is the only argument that makes sense for a pardon. I disagree with pardoning her but if this was the reason it would be understandable.
— Suz 🐾 (@susieskickinass) 24 августа 2018 г.
In a much-publicized case, Reality Winner was sentenced to over five years in prison on Thursday after she issued a guilty plea in June over espionage charges. Winner was indicted over leaking a classified document detailing alleged Russia collusion during the 2016 presidential campaign to The Intercept in 2017.
The document, which was found to have been handed out to The Intercept by Reality herself due to microscopic NSA markings on it, contained an NSA analysis of an alleged Russian hacking attempt on US voting infrastructure days before the presidential election. The document, however, did not allege the hack altered any votes.
