District Judge Releases Chelsea Manning from Prison
Matthew T. McDonald
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U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga has ordered the immediate release of former army intelligence analyst and whistleblower Chelsea Manning from prison.
In the Release Order Judge Trenga wrote, “The court find that Ms. Manning’s appearance before the grand jury is no longer needed, in light of which her detention no longer serves any coercive purposes”
Though the judge also ruled she is still responsible to pay $256,000.000 in fines.
Manning was originally jailed over a year ago for contempt of court after refusing to testify about her relationship with Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange, but was released for a short time after the grand jury expired. Prosecutors then obtained a second subpoena, and she was locked up a second time in May for defying it.
Upon her release, Ms. Manning’s lawyer Moira Meltzer-Cohen gave this statement, “It is my devout hope that she is released to us shortly, and that she is finally given a meaningful opportunity to rest and heal that she so richly deserves.”
In early 2010, Ms. Manning, who was then known as PFC Bradley Manning, provided a cache of classified information to Wikileaks and in 2013 she was charged with and found guilty of Violating the Espionage Act, stealing government property, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and multiple accounts. She was sentenced to thirty five years at the maximum- security barracks at Fort Leavenworth.
On January 17th, 2017 President Obama communted Manning’s sentence to nearly seven years dating from her arrest on May 27th, 2010.
Manning is seen as a hero across the political spectrum by those who oppose war, government overreach, and the secrecy of those who run the military industrial complex.
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