Chelsea Manning's Daily Fines for Grand Jury Resistance Increase to $1000
Chelsea Manning
Former military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning speaks to the press
ahead of a grand jury appearance about WikiLeaks, in Alexandria, Virginia,
on May 16, 2019.
Eric Baradat / AFP / Getty Images
By Kevin Gosztola, Shadowproof Published July 17, 2019
Chelsea Manning's Daily Fines for Grand Jury Resistance Increase to $1000
Daily fines against Chelsea Manning for resisting a grand jury investigating
WikiLeaks increased to $1000 on July 16.
On May 16, Judge Anthony Trenga held Manning in civil contempt and ordered
her to be sent back to the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center in
Alexandria. The court also imposed a fine of $500 per day after 30 days, and
then a fine of $1000 per day after 60 days.
From June 16 to July 15, the court fined her $500/day. Those fines total
$15,000.
If Manning "persists in her refusal" for the next 15 months or until the
grand jury's term ends, her legal team says she will face a total amount of
fines that is over $440,000. This excessive amount may violate her Eighth
Amendment rights under the Constitution.
In May, Manning's attorneys filed a motion challenging the harshness of the
fines. The federal court has yet to rule on the motion or hold a hearing.
The motion asserted there is no "appropriate coercive sanction" because
Manning will never testify. She should be released from jail and relieved of
all fines.
"Ms. Manning has publicly articulated the moral basis for her refusal to
comply with the grand jury subpoena, in statements to the press, in open
court, and most recently, in a letter addressed to this court," her
attorneys stated. "She is suffering physically and psychologically, and is
at the time of this writing in the process of losing her home as a result of
her present confinement."
"The government, and maybe the general public, think that I have access to
resources just because I am a public figure but that's just not true,"
Manning previously declared. "Making money has never been my priority."
She continued, "I do the work I do for the same reason I do everything -
because I want to make a difference. Now, my work has been totally
interrupted by my incarceration. I definitely feel the costs of these
sanctions, but I never expected to have a comfortable life, and I would
rather be in debt forever than betray my principles."
According to a June press statement from her legal team, the government
alleged Manning had the resources to pay tens of thousands if not hundreds
of thousands of dollars in fines since she does public speaking events.
But her legal team countered, "She has no personal savings, an uncertain
speaking career that has been abruptly halted by her incarceration, and is
moving her few belongings into storage, as she can no longer afford to pay
her rent."
Manning has attempted to share her financial records with the federal court
in an effort to show that she has debt and "compromised earning capacity,"
which has "left her balance sheets near zero." But the court has apparently
never completed a financial assessment of her ability to pay fines.
Manning's attorneys do not question whether the court has the authority
within its "traditional contempt powers" to impose fines, however, they
maintain such fines are "generally reserved for corporations, which cannot
be confined, and which have the capacity to absorb a fine without suffering,
for example, homelessness."
"Rarely, individuals are fined, but counsel can find no case in which fines
were assessed as to an individual other than where the individual was a
sophisticated financial actor and the underlying contempt involved
disobedience of a court order directing the management of a large amount of
money."
Often a court will order someone to prison or fine them to coerce testimony.
The judge took the extraordinary step of imposing both penalties.
The United States government already submitted its extradition request
against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and additional charges are highly
unlikely. Despite this fact, Manning remains in jail, where she endures
daily psychological and physical trauma compounded by her previous
confinement and her needs as a transgender woman.
