Ex-Army intelligence analyst Manning jailed for defying grand jury subpoena

[March 09, 2019]  By Sarah N. Lynch and Mark Hosenball

(Reuters) - Former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning was taken to jail on Friday after a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, held her in contempt for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury, representatives for Manning and the U.S. Justice Department confirmed.

Manning had appeared before the grand jury on Wednesday but declined to answer questions in connection with what is widely believed to be the government's long-running investigation into Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange, citing her First, Fourth and Sixth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

She returned to court Friday for a hearing and Judge Claude Hilton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Virginia weighed the legal arguments Manning used to justify her decision to defy the grand jury subpoena.

Manning's communications team released a statement saying the judge said she will be detained until she either cooperates or the grand jury finishes its term.

It is unclear exactly why federal prosecutors want Manning to testify, although her representatives say the questions she was asked concern the release of information she disclosed to the public in 2010 through WikiLeaks.

Manning was convicted by court-martial in 2013 of espionage and other offenses for furnishing more than 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to WikiLeaks while she was an intelligence analyst in Iraq.

Former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning speaks to reporters outside the U.S. federal courthouse shortly before appearing before a federal judge and being taken into custody as he held her in contempt of court for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. March 8, 2019. REUTERS/Ford Fischer/News2Share

Former U.S. President Barack Obama, in his final days in office, commuted the final 28 years of Manning’s 35-year sentence.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been a longtime target of a criminal investigation in the United States, had promised to accept extradition if Manning was freed.

Assange has been living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012.

A document that prosecutors say was filed in federal court last year by mistake appeared to show that federal authorities already have obtained a sealed indictment against Assange.

After journalists discovered the document, prosecutors declined to either confirm or deny a sealed indictment had been issued by the Alexandria-based grand jury, which has been hearing evidence on Assange and Wikileaks for years.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Mark Hosenball; Editing by Bill Trott)

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