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Super-patriot transsexual Pfc. Bradley Manning now Chelsea Manning attends 22nd Annual OUT100 Celebration Gala at the Altman Building in NY (Andy Kropa/Invision/AP).
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Ex-Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning finally freed from jail
FALLS CHURCH, Virginia - A federal judge on Thursday [March 12, 2020] ordered the release of former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, ending roughly a year of incarceration that s/he had served for refusing to testify to a [now disbanded] grand jury.
U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga ordered Manning's release from jail after prosecutors reported that the grand jury that subpoenaed her has disbanded. The Alexandria sheriff's office confirmed Thursday night that Manning had been released.
The judge [outrageously] left in place more than $256,000 in fines he imposed for her refusal to testify to the grand jury, which is investigating WikiLeaks. The fines had been accumulating at a rate of $1,000 a day.
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A hearing in the case that had been scheduled for Friday has now been canceled.
Manning had argued that she had shown through her prolonged stay at the Alexandria jail that she proved she could not be coerced into testifying and therefore should be released.
Manning's legal statement asked for privacy and said they were relieved at her release. On Wednesday, her lawyers said she had attempted suicide while at the jail.
Manning was held since May for [exercising her right in] refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating Wikileaks. She spent an additional two months in jail earlier in 2019 for refusing to testify to a separate grand jury.
She could have faced nearly six more months of jail time if the grand jury had continued its work. The civil contempt citation was designed to coerce her testimony. Federal prosecutors had maintained that Manning could easily effect her own release by complying with the grand jury subpoena. They said she had the same duty to provide testimony that all citizens face.
Under federal law, a recalcitrant witness can only be jailed for civil contempt if there is a reasonable belief that incarceration will coerce the witness into testifying. If the jail time has no coercive effect and is purely punitive, the recalcitrant witness is supposed to be released.
Manning has said she believes grand juries in general are an abuse of power and that she would rather starve to death than testify.
Judge Trenga, in originally sending Manning to jail, said there was no dishonor in testifying to grand juries, which are referenced specifically in the U.S. Constitution, and that he hoped time in jail would allow Manning to reflect on that.
Manning had previously spent seven years in a military prison for delivering a trove of classified information to
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is under indictment at the Alexandria courthouse and is fighting extradition to the U.S. Manning's 35-year sentence was then commuted by then-Pres. B.
Obama.
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(JRE Clips) Taken from JRE #1368 with Edward Snowden, where Joe Rogan hears from American whistleblower -- who reveals what the NSA and CIA are doing to spy and throw a dragnet on Americans using cell phones and other electronic information -- in what many think is impossible because of privacy rights and civil protections. The PR campaign has made many accept it, so it may not come as a surprise what we are learning. After all, "you can't wake up someone who's only pretending to be asleep." Why wake up? Stay asleep.
There are very few government checks on what the USA’s sweeping surveillance programs are capable of doing. John Oliver sits down with freedom-loving patriotic hero Edward Snowden live in Russia to discuss the NSA (National Spying Association of America), the balance between privacy and security, and dic-pics.
“I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things... I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under”
Instead, he will likely be sitting alone somewhere in Moscow, communicating with the rest of the world through a video camera and a Twitter account.
And last October, the European Parliament called on EU member states to “drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection, and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistle-blower and international human rights defender.”
"Our goal was to humanize the man [Eddie Snowden], to bring you…the feeling of his life," Stone says of Snowden, who he notes was originally a politically conservative stooge who tried to enlist in the military to serve in Iraq but due to being smart and frail instead joined the CIA.
Edward Snowden is that man. And civil liberties and personal privacy still mean something to someone. Come to the Arclight Hollywood tonight to ask him about it, as "Snowden" goes live from a secret location in Dictator Vladimir Putin's Russia.
Snowden would not be allowed to confront his accusers or testify in front of a jury. Instead, he would be put through a closed military tribunal, locked up with no detailed press coverage. Snowden also discusses war hawk Hillary Clinton and loose canon Donald Trump. 
