Transgender Whistleblower Chelsea Manning Denied Bail

Transgender whistleblower and activist Chelsea Manning was denied bail on Monday (April 22), the judge deciding to hold Manning in civil contempt for refusing to testify in an investigation of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, reported Gay Star News.

Manning was convicted in 2013 for violations of the Espionage Act. The former Army intelligence analyst allegedly disclosed over 700,000 classified and classified but sensitive military and diplomatic documents to Wikileaks, which publishes news leaks and secret information.

She received a 35-year sentence, but former President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017.

However, Manning was jailed in March after refusing to testify in a federal investigation of Wikileaks and its founder, Assange, who was arrested in April after losing asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy. Most of his investigation has been kept secret from the public.

In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond found no fault with this decision to hold Manning in contempt of court, keeping her in jail.

“Under consideration of the of the memorandum briefs filed on appeal and the record of proceedings in the district court, the court finds no errors in the district court’s rulings and affirms its finding of civil contempt,” the panel wrote in their ruling. “The court denies the appellant’s motion for release on bail.”

“While disappointing, we can still raise issues as the government continues to abuse the grand jury process,” Manning said in a statement. “I don’t have anything to contribute to this, or any other grand jury. While I miss home, they can continue to hold me in jail, with all the harmful consequences that brings. I will not give up.”

Manning’s time in jail has received scrutiny from many liberal politicians after reports claimed she was being held in solitary confinement or so-called “administrative segregation.”

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez demanded Manning be released from solitary confinement at the beginning of April on Twitter.

According to a representative for Manning, she was moved into general population just two days after Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet.