Chelsea Manning Vows to ‘Never’ Cooperate With Grand Jury

Chelsea Manning might have been released from jail, but her freedom will likely be short-lived.

Last Thursday, the whistleblower-turned-activist was released from the Alexandria, Virginia, detention center where she had been jailed for refusing to answer a grand jury's questions about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange since March 8. Manning, who spent seven years in prison for leaking classified government documents to Assange while serving as an analyst in the United States Army, is scheduled to testify before another grand jury this coming Thursday, where she expects to be asked the same questions about WikiLeaks and its founder that she refused to answer in March.

"They've already stipulated that they want to ask the same questions," Manning told CNN's Brian Stelter during a Reliable Sources interview that aired on Sunday. "So this is not about -- this is not about anything new. They're not even asking anything -- they're not asking anything new."

Although Manning told Stelter that she doesn't know if she'll be back in jail by week's end, she seems fully ready to repeat that outcome for as long as the federal government feels like it. In a video statement published Thursday following her release from jail, Manning doubled down on her commitment to "not cooperate with this or any other grand jury.

"I will never agree to testify before this or any other grand jury," she said. "The truth is that the government can construct no prison worse than to betray my own conscience and my principles."

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