Chelsea Manning Jailed For Not Answering Before Grand Jury

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Chelsea Manning, the former Army private convicted of leaking classified documents to the website WikiLeaks, has been ordered into federal custody by a judge in the eastern district of Virginia.

Manning, 31, was found in contempt of court by a judge in Alexandria after she refused to answer questions from prosecutors before a federal grand jury about information leaked to WikiLeaks.

In a statement, representatives for Manning said she invoked her 1st, 4th and 6th amendment protections when she appeared before a federal grand jury on March 6. Manning "refused to answer questions from prosecutors regarding the release of information she disclosed to the public in 2010," a statement from Manning's representatives said.

Before the hearing on Friday to consider the legal grounds for Manning's refusal, she acknowledged in a statement that she may be ordered to jail.

"All of the substantive questions pertained to my disclosures of information to the public in 2010—answers I provided in extensive testimony, during my court-martial in 2013. I responded to each question with the following statement: ‘I object to the question and refuse to answer on the grounds that the question is in violation of my First, Fourth, and Sixth Amendment, and other statutory rights,’" Manning said in a statement.

Manning said she was prepared to face the consequences of her refusal.

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for her role in leaking information to WikiLeaks. Her sentence was commuted by President Obama to expire on May 17, 2017.

This report will be updated.