Lawyers for former NSA contractor and accused leaker Reality Winner have branded as “scary” what they say are the federal government's efforts to unfairly hobble them by casting a broad, ill-defined blanket of secrecy over information, including published news accounts, they may need for Winner's defense.

Responding to federal prosecutors who last week sought a broad protective order to govern information disclosures, Winner attorneys John Bell and Titus Nichols also objected to a ban that prevents Winner from reviewing classified materials with her lawyers. They contended the prohibition would violate Winner's constitutional rights by preventing her from confronting witnesses or addressing the evidence against her. Prosecutors are seeking as part of Winner's prosecution to limit to people with security clearances the release of classified materials and anything else that “could reasonably be believed to contain classified information.”

The defense team also hinted in their pleading, filed Thursday morning in federal court in Augusta, Georgia, at how they intend to defend Winner. She has been charged with espionage—a statute her attorneys say is intended to prevent military secrets from being stolen and then handed to enemies of the United States. In 2000, Congress passed a law that would have criminalized the disclosure of classified information. That bill, Winner's lawyers said, was vetoed.