Chelsea Manning said on Sunday that the prosecution of Julian Assange shows the Trump administration “clearly wants to go after journalists.”
On Sunday, the former soldier-turned-whistleblower made her first TV appearance since her release from jail on Thursday. She was arrested in March and held in contempt for refusing to testify to a grand jury in the government’s hacking case against Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange.
“Do you view the prosecution of Assange as a threat to press freedom?” CNN’s Brian Stelter asked.
Manning said the eastern Virginia district, the court heading the Assange prosecution, is becoming a “rubber stamp” to start going after reporters.
“This administration clearly wants to go after journalists,” she said, predicting that if the Trump administration gets its way, national security reporters and any other journalists who are “disruptive” to Trump’s agenda will face charges that aren’t directly related to their coverage.
“Whenever a journalist makes a misstep, I think that they’re going to be put on notice now that the FBI and the Department of Justice are going to go after them on administration’s behalf,” Manning said.
Watch below:
Chelsea Manning says the prosecution of Julian Assange indicates that the Trump administration "clearly wants to go after journalists." pic.twitter.com/kDfXXlvH6f
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) May 12, 2019
