BREAKING NEWS: VERDICTS TBA
TOMORROW 1PM ET
Expected month-long sentencing
phase of trial to follow.
Judge alters charges to assist Gov’t ahead of
verdict
“The Government has pushed this case beyond the bounds
of legal propriety. If the Government meant ‘information’, it should have
charged information,” explains defense attorney David Coombs in legal filings
last week.
Two years ago, Army PFC Bradley Manning was charged with five counts of
stealing government property, in violation of federal statute 18 U.S.C. 641. He
faces 21 total charges for providing WikiLeaks with classified information at
the court martial entering its final stage. After the Government rested its case
against PFC Manning, defense lawyer David Coombs detailed how the evidence
presented did not support those five 18 U.S.C. 641 charges. He appealed to
military judge Col. Denise Lind to dismiss them outright; however, she let them
stand. Shockingly, she then stepped away from her role as the “finder of fact,”
and into a clearly partisan role by allowing the Government to significantly
alter its charges on July 24, 2013–long after all legal arguments had been made.
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