Judge orders Chelsea Manning's immediate release from jail
One day after U.S. Army veteran and whistleblower Chelsea Manning attempted suicide in a federal detention center, a judge in U.S. District Court has ordered her immediate release, according to court documents filed Thursday.
Manning is best known for her 2013 conviction by court martial for violating the Espionage Act, after she leaked classified information to WikiLeaks during her time as an Army intelligence analyst. She was sentenced to 35 years in prison but had her sentence commuted in 2017 by President Barack Obama in his final days in office.
However, after a couple years of freedom, Manning was jailed again for contempt of court, after refusing to cooperate in the government's case against WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. On Wednesday, her lawyers informed the public that she had attempted suicide and was recovering in a hospital.
"Her actions today evidence the strength of her convictions, as well as the profound harm she continues to suffer as a result of her 'civil' confinement," her team's statement on Wednesday said.
But on Thursday, the court dismissed the grand jury that Manning was being compelled to appear before, as its business had concluded. As a result, Judge Anthony J. Trenga in the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that Manning's confinement should end.
_New York Daily News
