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U.S. NEWS Saturday 9 March 2019
Chelsea Manning jailed for refusing to testify on WikiLeaks

By MATTHEW BARAKAT emails to WikiLeaks stolen
Associated Press from Democratic organiza-
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — tions, including presidential
Former Army intelligence candidate Hillary Clinton’s
analyst Chelsea Manning, campaign.
who served years in pris- But there is no indica-
on for leaking one of the tion that the Alexandria
largest troves of classified grand jury’s investigation of
documents in U.S. history, WikiLeaks is related to the
was sent to jail Friday for Mueller investigation.
refusing to testify before McCormick said Manning
a grand jury investigating can end the incarceration
WikiLeaks. on the civil charge simply
U.S. District Judge Claude by following the law and
Hilton ordered Manning testifying.
to jail for civil contempt of “We hope she changes her
court after a brief hearing mind now,” McCormick
in federal court in Alexan- said.
dria in which Manning con- Manning’s lawyer, Moira
firmed she has no inten- Meltzer-Cohen, said she
tion of testifying. She told believes jailing Manning is
the judge she “will accept an act of cruelty given her
whatever you bring upon medical issues, and said
me.” there are many document-
Manning has said she ob- ed issues of jails and pris-
jects to the secrecy of the ons providing inadequate
grand jury process and al- This booking photo provided by the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office, in Virginia, shows Chelsea medical care for transgen-
ready revealed everything Manning. der inmates. She said Man-
she knows at her court- Associated Press ning’s one-bedroom apart-
martial. She said prosecu- cerns,” Alexandria Sheriff advertently disclosed that Mueller’s investigation into ment would be a sufficient
tors have granted her im- Dana Lawhorne said in a WikiLeaks founder Julian possible Russian meddling manner of confinement.
munity for her testimony, statement. “We will work Assange is facing unspeci- into the 2016 presidential Meltzer-Cohen said after
which eliminates her ability closely with the U.S. Mar- fied, sealed criminal charg- election, as investigators the hearing that the de-
to invoke her Fifth Amend- shals to ensure her proper es in the district. focus on whether Presi- tention order can be ap-
ment right against self-in- care while she remains at WikiLeaks also has emerged dent Donald Trump’s cam- pealed, but did not com-
crimination. our facility.” as an important part of paign knew Russian hack- ment on whether such an
“I will not participate in a Manning acknowledged Special Counsel Robert ers were going to provide appeal would be filed.q
secret process that I mor- going into Friday’s hear-
ally object to, particularly ing that she might well be
one that has been used incarcerated at its con-
to entrap and persecute clusion. Outside the court-
activists for protected po- house, about 10 protesters
litical speech,” she said in rallied in her support.
a statement released after “Obviously, prison is a ter-
she was taken into custody. rible place,” Manning said.
The judge said she will re- “I don’t see the purpose to
main jailed until she testifies incarcerate people.”
or until the grand jury con- Manning served seven
cludes its work. years of a 35-year military
Manning’s lawyers had sentence for leaking a
asked that she be sent to trove of military and dip-
home confinement instead lomatic documents to the
of the jail because of com- anti-secrecy website be-
plications she faces in re- fore then-President Barack
ceiving gender-affirming Obama commuted her
medical care. sentence.
The judge said U.S. mar- The WikiLeaks investigation
shals can handle her medi- has been ongoing for a
cal care. Prosecutor Tracy long time. Last year, pros-
McCormick said the jail ecutors in Alexandria in-
and the marshals have as-
sured the government that
her medical needs can be
met.
Amy Bertsch, spokeswom-
an for the Alexandria jail,
confirmed Friday that Man-
ning had been booked.
“Specific details about Ms.
Manning’s confinement will
not be made public due to
security and privacy con-