Friday, March 01, 2019
'To
Punish an Outspoken Whistleblower,' Chelsea Manning Subpoeaned to Testify
Before Grand Jury
Subpoeana likely related to WikiLeaks' Julian Assange
commondreams.org
Chelsea
Manning's advocates are decrying what they see as the Trump administration
trying "to punish an outspoken whistleblower" following the revelation
that she'd been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury.
"Chelsea
gave voluminous testimony during her court martial. She has stood by the truth
of her prior statements, and there is no legitimate purpose to having her
rehash them before a hostile grand jury."
—Chelsea
Resists support committeeThe demand to appear before a federal grand jury on
March 5, the New York Times reported, "was issued in the Eastern
District of Virginia and comes after prosecutors inadvertently disclosed in
November that Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has been charged under
seal in that district."
There
were "multiple reasons to believe that the subpoena is related to the investigation
of Mr. Assange," Times added, including that fact that it
came from federal attorney for the Eastern District Gordon D. Kromberg, who
previously argued successfully for the federal
government that the criminal charge against Assange should stay sealed.
"Moreover,"
the Times continues, Manning said that
Mr. Kromberg has told her lawyers in
vague terms that prosecutors wanted to talk to her about her past statements.
During her court-martial, Ms. Manning delivered a lengthy statement about how
she came to copy archives of secret documents and send them to WikiLeaks,
including her online interactions with someone who was likely Mr. Assange.
As
such, the subpoena, according to journalist Glenn Greenwald,
"shows that the Trump DOJ—as they've repeatedly vowed—is extremely serious
about prosecuting WikiLeaks & Assange for publication of documents, which
would pose a grave threat to press freedoms."
The
newly-created Chelsea Resists support committee,
meanwhile, argued that by "serving Chelsea Manning
with a grand jury subpoena, the government is attempting once again to punish
an outspoken whistleblower for her historic disclosures."
"Grand
juries are notoriously mired in secrecy, and have historically been used to
silence and retaliate against political activists," the committee added.
"Their indiscriminate nature means the government can attempt to
artificially coerce a witness into perjury or contempt. Chelsea gave voluminous
testimony during her court martial. She has stood by the truth of her prior
statements, and there is no legitimate purpose to having her rehash them before
a hostile grand jury."
The
support network, which notes that Manning "risked so much for public
good," is raising funds to support her legal
defense fund.
This work
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives."
Eugene Victor Debs
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