Chelsea Manning Tries to Kill Herself in Jail, Lawyers Say

Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who was jailed last year for refusing to testify before a grand jury that is investigating WikiLeaks, has been hospitalized after she attempted suicide on Wednesday, according to her lawyers.

Ms. Manning is currently recovering, a statement from her legal team said.

The statement said Ms. Manning was still scheduled to appear on Friday at a hearing before Judge Anthony Trenga of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. At the hearing, the judge is expected to rule on whether to end the civil contempt sanctions imposed on Ms. Manning in May, when she was jailed for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the publication of thousands of American military and diplomatic files that she had provided to WikiLeaks in 2010.

Ms. Manning has been in custody at a detention center in Alexandria, Va., since last May, after she was served with a subpoena to appear before a grand jury investigating the organization, which publishes government secrets online.

“In spite of those sanctions — which have so far included over a year of so-called ‘coercive’ incarceration and nearly half a million dollars in threatened fines — she remains unwavering in her refusal to participate in a secret grand jury process that she sees as highly susceptible to abuse,” said the statement from Ms. Manning’s legal team.

“Ms. Manning has previously indicated that she will not betray her principles, even at risk of grave harm to herself,” the statement said.

Ms. Manning has attempted suicide at least two previous times while imprisoned — once in 2016 during a week of solitary confinement at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., which was itself a punishment for an earlier attempt to end her life that year.

“Her actions today evidence the strength of her convictions, as well as the profound harm she continues to suffer as a result of her ‘civil’ confinement” the statement from Ms. Manning’s lawyers said.

In a letter last year to Judge Trenga, Ms. Manning described the grand jury investigation as “an effort to frighten journalists and publishers, who serve a crucial public good.”

Before her current incarceration, Ms. Manning served seven years in a military prison, including 11 months of solitary confinement, the statement said.

She was originally convicted in 2013 of providing more than 700,000 government files to WikiLeaks, exposing sensitive American military and diplomatic affairs around the world.

President Barack Obama intervened in her case in 2017, commuting all but four months of her 35-year sentence.

During Ms. Manning’s trial in 2013, testimony showed that she had been deteriorating, mentally and emotionally, during the period when she downloaded the documents and sent them to WikiLeaks. Then known as Pfc. Bradley Manning, she was struggling with gender dysphoria under conditions of extraordinary stress and isolation while deployed to the Iraq war zone.

John Ismay, Charlie Savage and Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting.