Chelsea Manning, a former US Army Intelligence analyst who gave classified information to WikiLeaks in 2010 was jailed for refusing to testify to a secret grand jury about WikiLeaks. Chelsea Manning received a subpoena in late January to testify before a federal grand jury in a case in the Eastern District of Virginia — this is the same district that the government accidentally revealed there was a sealed indictment against Julian Assange. U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton, a Reagan appointee, ordered Chelsea Manning to jail after Manning refused to testify, reported ABC News.
Manning told the judge, “I will accept whatever you bring upon me.” After refusing to answer the grand jury’s questions, Chelsea Manning was held in contempt of court. Hilton said Manning will remain jailed unless an agreement is reached for the former US Army Intel analyst to testify about WikiLeaks or until the grand jury finishes up their work on the case.
In 2010, Private First Class Bradley Manning (who later transitioned to Chelsea) stole State Department documents, many of them secret international embassy reports. Manning smuggled the security documents out on a CD labeled “Lady Gaga,” and handed them to WikiLeaks – WikiLeaks subsequently took the sensitive cables and made them public.
In 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for giving classified materials to WikiLeaks. In April 2014 a Kansas judge allowed Manning to change his name to “Chelsea.” In January of 2017, Obama commuted Chelsea Manning’s sentence from 35 years to 7 years — Manning was released from prison in May of 2017.
