Chelsea Manning Jailed Because She Won't Testify About WikiLeaks
"I will stand by my principles," Manning says.
Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been put back behind bars after she refused to testify before a federal grand jury about WikiLeaks. Manning famously gave the website hundreds of thousands of classified documents about the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010.
Manning previously told reporters that she expected to be jailed over her decision. "In solidarity with many activists facing the odds, I will stand by my principles," she said yesterday, according to The New York Times. "I will exhaust every legal remedy available. My legal team continues to challenge the secrecy of these proceedings, and I am prepared to face the consequences of my refusal."
Manning also told Judge Claude Hilton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia that she "will accept whatever you bring upon me," CBS reports. Hilton appears to have taken her up on that, telling Manning that she'll remain behind bars "until she purges or the end of the life of the grand jury," Manning's representatives said in a statement to NBC.
The prosecutor in the case, Tracy McCormick, said the medical needs of Manning, who is transgender, will be met while she's incarcerated, and that she'll be released if she decides to cooperate. "We hope she changes her mind now," McCormick said, according to CBS.
Manning also appeared before the grand jury on Wednesday. Manning wouldn't answer any questions then either, citing her constitutional rights. "I responded to each question with the following statement: 'I object to the question and refuse to answer on the grounds that the question is in violation of my First, Fourth, and Sixth Amendment, and other statutory rights,'" she said. "All of the substantive questions pertained to my disclosures of information to the public in 2010—answers I provided in extensive testimony, during my court-martial in 2013."
Convicted in 2013 of leaking classified documents, Manning served four more years of her 35-year prison sentence. In 2017, her sentence was commuted by then-President Barack Obama.
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