Chelsea Manning, who is serving a 35-year prison sentence for providing classified information to WikiLeaks, attempted suicide in her Fort Leavenworth cell earlier this week, according to multiple media reports.
But her legal team claims that the Army is keeping them in the dark about her condition and prohibiting contact with Manning for at least another day.
Manning was taken to a hospital after the alleged attempt Tuesday morning, according to TMZ.com and a tweet from CNN law enforcement reporter Shimon Prokupecz:
She's since been released from the hospital but is being "monitored," an official with the Kansas prison told TMZ.
However, Nancy Hollander, lead attorney on Manning's defense team, said the Army is refusing to verify the report given to the media.
National security leaker Chelsea Manning is appealing her 2013 court-martial conviction.
Photo Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
"We're shocked and outraged that an official at Leavenworth contacted the press with private confidential medical information about Chelsea Manning yet no one at the Army has given a shred of information to her legal team," Hollander said in a statement shared with Army Times.
Hollander claims the Army also refused to connect a "privileged call" that she had scheduled with Manning at 2 p.m. local time on Tuesday sans explanation — at which point, according to the unverified Army report, she would have already been hospitalized.
Further, she says, the Army is refusing to let Manning speak to any of her lawyers before Friday morning.
"Despite the fact that they have reached out to the media, and that any other prison will connect an emergency call, the Army has told her lawyers that the earliest time that they will accommodate a call between her lawyers and Chelsea is Friday morning," she wrote. "We call on the Army to immediately connect Chelsea Manning to her lawyers and friends who care deeply about her well-being and are profoundly distressed by the complete lack of official communication about Chelsea's current situation."
Manning appealed her 2013 conviction in May. The appeal must undergo a security review before its release, a court official said at the time.
The soldier's request for a legal name change from Bradley to Chelsea was granted by a Kansas judge in April 2014. The next March, a military appeals court recognized the transgender soldier as a woman for the first time, ordering the use of female or gender-neutral pronouns in all references, per an AP report. She was cleared to begin hormone therapy while behind bars in February 2015, the AP reported.
Manning was convicted on 19 of 21 charges including espionage, theft and computer fraud, all stemming from providing WikiLeaks with more than 700,000 digital files. The soldier was acquitted of aiding the enemy, the most serious charge faced.
Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.
