Chelsea Manning 28-Page Brief Filed April 11th 2019
Chelsea Manning 28-Page Brief Filed April 11th 2019
Chelsea Manning 28-Page Brief Filed April 11th 2019
IN THE
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
______________________
No. 19-1287
_______________________
Appellee,
v.
CHELSEA MANNING,
Movant-Appellant.
__________________________________________________________________
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents 2
Table of Authorities 3
Federal Cases 3
Conclusion 20
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Table of Authorities
Gelbard v. United States, 408 U.S. 41, 56, 92 S. Ct. 2357, 2365, 33 L.
Ed. 2d 179 (1972) 10
In re: Knight Pub. Co., 743 F.2d 231 (4th Cir. 1984) 19
In re Grand Jury Investigation, to 431 F. Supp. 2d 584, 590 (E.D. Va. 2006) 7
In re: Grand Jury Proceedings, 417 F.3d 18, at 26 (1st Cir. 2005) 16
In re Grand Jury Subpoena (T-112), 597 F.3d 189, 210 (4th Cir. 2010) 7
United States Hargrove, 625 F.3d 170, 184 (4th Cir. 2010) 6
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United States v. Procter & Gamble Co., 356 U.S. 677, 682, 78 S.Ct. 983,
2 L.Ed.2d 1077 (1958) 19
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Preliminary Statement
Appellees on April 9, 2019, and in further support of her appeal of the District
Court’s Order on March 8, 2019, finding her in civil contempt of court, and ordering
her immediate incarceration. Ms. Manning has been incarcerated for the past month.
for purposes of delay, however, as it is Ms. Manning who remains in jail, deprived
of her liberty, any purported delay is not in her interest. Her appeal is not frivolous:
substantial rights are at stake. She simply seeks review of the lower court’s
determination that her refusal to testify was not justified under relevant precedent.
The relevant facts and procedural history are set forth in Ms. Manning’s brief to this
adequately preserve this issue for appeal. On the contrary, counsel renewed the
earlier request for the government to make very simple affirmations or denials based
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on the questions that had been asked, precisely because as stated, “at a minimum,
the witness is entitled to the information that was relied upon in support of the
contempt application… [and] they are also entitled to information in the possession
of the Government that would support their claim to having just cause excusing their
testimony.” J.A. 373. Ms. Manning did not request substantive information, but
referred to the arguments made previously in renewing her very basic request for an
Ms. Manning’s request was sufficient to preserve the issue for appeal.
Assuming ex arguendo that the issue was not preserved, the failure of the
district court to rule upon this motion constitutes plain error in the face of the
surveillance., United States Hargrove, 625 F.3d 170, 184 (4th Cir. 2010) (plain error
exists where there is a “serious error affecting the fundamental fairness, integrity,
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inasmuch as 1) the language in her declaration was too “equivocal”; 2) that she did
not sufficiently demonstrate that she was a “party aggrieved”; and 3) that she failed
to posit a nexus between the complained-of surveillance and her interrogation before
Contrary to the government’s assertions, Ms. Manning’s disclosure motion set forth
sufficient facts which, under this Court’s decision in In re Grand Jury Subpoena (T-
112), 597 F.3d 189, 210 (4th Cir. 2010), trigger the government’s duty to respond.
This Court rejected the very argument made here by the government, because in fact
it is generally not possible for a witness to make detailed statements about covert
surveillance:
Accordingly, the principle that “[a] cognizable ‘claim’ need be no more than
Investigation, to 431 F. Supp. 2d 584, 590 (E.D. Va. 2006), citing to United States
v. Apple, 915 F.2d 899 (4th Cir 1990). This Court has recognized that the burden
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placed on a party moving for disclosures under §3504 must be low in order to avoid
patent injustice:
“[to] compel a party who objects to the use of evidence obtained as a result of
unlawful wiretapping to go forward with a showing of taint, and then to withhold
from him the means or tools to meet that burden, is to create an absurdity in the
law.” Apple, at 910, citing United States v. Huss, 482 F.2d 38 (2nd Cir. 1973).
United States v. Nabors, 707 F.2d 1294 (9th Cir. 1983); United States v. Robins, 978
F.2d 975 (5th Cir. 1992); In re Baker, 680 F.2d 721 (11th Cir. 1982). Contrary to
those cases, where the claims were based entirely upon generalized suspicion and
speculation, Ms. Manning’s declaration makes abundantly clear the reasons for her
belief that she specifically was electronically surveilled; when, where, and by whom;
and the connection she posits between that surveillance and the subpoena that
Ms. Manning, in an abundance of caution, did not overstate the absolute truth
of her claims, which of course she could not have proven, but this does not mean her
allegations were imprecise or speculative. For example, while the government reads
her declaration to suggest that she may have been surveilled at some time within a
1
The government seems to take some of her assertions as evidence that Ms.
Manning concedes being subject only to physical surveillance, although the
declaration makes quite clear that the vans surveilling her were equipped with
antennae, clearly implying electronic surveillance such as would be used to
intercept internet traffic. See Opp. p. 25
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span of nine months, she actually alleges something rather more pernicious: that she
was continuously electronically surveilled over the course of nine months. See
Furthermore, the government perversely suggests that the law might reach a
different result had Ms. Manning said “I have been the subject of illegal electronic
surveillance” (Opp. p. 24) rather than “I have reason to believe I was the subject of
illegal electronic surveillance.”2 The implication is that Ms. Manning made a simple
and unsupported statement of belief, but of course, this initial statement was
belief. See Manning Dec., J.A. 56. The government may not artificially elevate or
The burden on the aggrieved party to trigger simple government denials is,
Wikimedia Found. v. Nat'l Sec. Agency/Cent. Sec. Serv., 335 F. Supp. 3d 772, 786
(D. Md. 2018) (the requisite affirmations or denials place “only a minimal additional
2
As noted in Appellant’s brief, Chelsea Manning is a high-profile person of
interest to every agency concerned with national security, all of which are known
to engage in electronic surveillance, lawful and otherwise. It is patently absurd to
imagine that she alone of such persons has not been subject to electronic
surveillance, which is certainly why the government has been so reluctant to be
called upon to make the requested denials.
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burden upon the government.”). It is therefore worth here noting that the government
wildly overstates the burden posed by doing an all-agency canvass, as well as its
significance. Section 3504 requires that once adequately alleged, the government
must disclose or deny the existence of electronic surveillance. It does not say they
significant rights, to ensure that law enforcement agencies have complied with their
obligations under the law, and to ensure furthermore that the government and the
courts are not made a party to malfeasance, period. See Gelbard v. United States,
408 U.S. 41, 56, 92 S. Ct. 2357, 2365, 33 L. Ed. 2d 179 (1972); In re Grand Jury
Proceedings (Macklen), 525 F. Supp. 831, 834 (D.S.C. 1981) (“the government
should bear the burden of making a concrete denial”). Courts have endeavored to
make the burden on the government concomitant with the specificity of the witness’
allegations, but the obligation itself, however inconvenient, arises upon a “positive
Next, but no less perplexing, the government alleges that Ms. Manning was
government asserts that Ms. Manning failed to articulate the requisite causal nexus
Despite not having been “privy to the full scope of questioning,” (Opp. p. 38)
she was told early on that the government intended to question her about purported
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inconsistent statements. Because she knows (1) that she made no such statements,
and (2) that she has received emails from others that may contain and/or incorrectly
assign to her such statements, she believes the subpoena was propounded on the
basis of unlawfully obtained electronic surveillance. (See Manning Dec., under seal,
Paragraphs 13-16, 27). Not only does this constitute the “arguable causal
“aggrieved” by such an event. The government’s contention that she must show
more, while withholding from her the very information that would form the basis of
her ability to do so, is the very definition of the kind of “absurdity” contemplated
by Apple, supra.
432 F. Supp. 50, 54 (W.D. Va. 1977). In each case cited to support their position,
the issue is not the existence, but the sufficiency of government denials. Here,
however, the government has been quite careful not to make even a general denial,
something they could have done at any time with absolutely no disruption to the
grand jury. Instead, without making any denials of electronic surveillance — almost
certainly because they cannot do so truthfully — they hammer away at the alleged
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deficiencies in Ms. Manning’s syntax, misstate the burdens to be borne by both Ms.
obligations required under the statute the lower court erred when it adjudicated Ms.
Manning in contempt. This Court should vacate the contempt and either release Ms.
to the Sole and Dominant Purpose of the Subpoena Issued to Ms. Manning.
Manning argued as extensively as the District Court allowed with respect to the issue
of grand jury abuse. In hearings on both March 5 and 6, Ms. Manning expressed
concerns that she was being called so that the government could preview or
undermine her testimony as a potential defense witness at a trial, and not pursuant
and again:
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"We have, of course, expressed our concerns about the potential for a perjury
trap and our concerns that this grand jury subpoena is being used to
undermine Ms. Manning potentially as a witness, put her in jeopardy of
contempt and reincarceration, or to go on a fishing expedition to
constitutionally protected activity. (J.A. 304-5).
On March 8, Ms. Manning again pointed out her concern that repetitious
questioning was abusive. The issue to be preserved was whether the subpoena or
questioning was an abuse of grand jury power. Ms. Manning raised and preserved
the issue of grand jury abuse in each hearing, and referred clearly to the issue of
relevant only to a prosecutor preparing for trial. As noted above, it is not necessary
jury abuse were made in the Motion to Quash, and at each appearance prior to and
including the March 8 contempt hearing. These arguments were then referred to
again during the contempt hearing, and renewed. These arguments were thus
preserved.
these arguments. Instead they rest on the bare statement that a presumption of
issue, Ms. Manning was not in a position to know with certainty whether the sole
as to have required the District Court to request some assurances from the
government. The District Court did not request such assurances, and indeed, made
no comment on the arguments other than to make an initial and conclusory statement
that they were speculative and premature. J.A. 301 3 . In itself, this failure was a
fundamental error.
Subsequent events have shown that the abuse claims are true. On the very
date this brief is being filed, the government unsealed an indictment against Julian
Assange that was obtained in this grand jury a full year to the day prior to the time
Ms. Manning appeared and refused to give testimony. See Exhibit A. Clearly the
government did not respond substantively during the motion to quash and contempt
proceedings because they knew that the sole and dominant purpose of the subpoena
evidence suggesting that the prosecutor is using the grand jury as a mechanism for
pretrial discovery, the Court must , at a minimum, require that the government
establish that the subpoena was not issued for an improper purpose. United States v.
3
In their opposition to Bail (p. 14), the government appears to make the argument
that the substantive arguments were “repeated.” In fact, the section of the transcript
to which they cite involves not a substantive argument but counsel’s pleas to the
Court regarding the risks faced by trans women in prison.
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Alvarado, 840 F.3d 184 (4th Cir. 2016). See also United States v. Moss, supra, (“it
is the universal rule that prosecutors cannot utilize the grand jury solely or even
Given the Assange indictment, there is now literally no doubt whatsoever that
this concern, raised multiple times, was grounded in fact, and was sufficient to have
rebutted the presumption of grand jury regularity. The District Court ought to have
required at least some assurances from the government. Instead, they dismissed out
of hand the entirely legitimate evidence and concerns of a grand jury witness with
Point 3: The District Court Erred by Holding the Substance of the Civil
Contempt Hearing in a Closed Courtroom.
Contrary to the government’s assertions, the District Court did not entertain
extensive argument on the issues raised in Ms. Manning’s Motion to Quash. Gov.
Opp. at 10. The proceedings on March 5, 2019 lasted less than forty-five minutes.
The transcripts of March 6 show one page in which counsel renewed this issue, cited
caselaw, and proposed briefing, and a single point at which the District Court
summarily concludes that the contempt hearing will be held in a sealed courtroom.
about the propriety of the subpoena itself, and later only perfunctorily opened the
courtroom, such that Ms. Manning was deprived of Due Process and a public
proceeding.
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This Court must reverse the finding of contempt entered against Ms. Manning
in light of the unnecessary daily closure of the courtroom and the District Court’s
The government argues that the general risk of the motions and contempt
hearings revealing information occurring before the grand jury justified abrogation
of Ms. Manning’s rights to Due Process and a public trial. None of the information
within the hearings on the Motion to Quash or the entire contempt hearing revealed
the substance of any secret information that occurred before the grand jury, a fact
Courts have recognized that “the purpose in Rule 6(e) is to preserve secrecy.
Information widely known is not secret.” In re: North, 16 F.3d 1234 (D.C. Cir.
1994). See In re: Charlotte Observer, 921 F.2d 47, 50 (4th Cir. 1990). Furthermore,
the fact that “a grand jury had subpoenaed Chelsea Manning to testify” does not
implicated Rule 6(e), because Rule 6(e)(2)(B) does not list “witnesses” as a category
of persons who “must not” disclose grand jury matters, and this fact was already
publicly known. In re: Grand Jury Proceedings, 417 F.3d 18, at 26 (1st Cir. 2005).
The courts and public have known for years of the existence of a grand jury
investigation into Wikileaks & Julian Assange (see United States v. Appelbaum, 707
F.3d 283 (4th Cir., 2013)) and the government itself has disclosed – albeit initially
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very grand jury. See United States v. Seitu Sulayman Kokayi (E.D.V.A, Alexandria
On April 11, 2019, that indictment was unsealed, confirming that it was
obtained on March 6, 2018, over a year ago, and it goes without saying that at least
the government was aware of, but did not disclose the existence of the already-
obtained indictment. The District Court did not take this into account when deciding
whether closure of the courtroom was required, and the finding of contempt should
be reversed.
U.S. 257 (1948), is inapplicable to the case at hand because the closed contempt
traditional grand jury. The Supreme Court in Oliver made clear that the specific
persons present in the proceeding were irrelevant to the question of whether Due
Process was afforded to the witness because “it is certain, however, that the public
was excluded—the questioning was secret in accordance with the traditional grand
Their reliance on Levine v. United States is likewise misplaced. 362 U.S. 610
(1960). In Levine, the Supreme Court reiterated that “due process demands
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contempt, as it does for all adjudications through the exercise of the judicial power,
exigencies of war or for the protection of children4.” Id. at 616 (internal citations
omitted). The Fourth Circuit has followed adopted Levine, finding that Due Process
rights guaranteed to a defendant by the Fifth Amendment are coextensive with the
rights specified in the Sixth Amendment. Hartman v. Lee, 283 F.3d 190, at 194 (4th
Cir., 2002).
erroneously concludes that the Sixth Amendment right to a public trial does not
apply to contempt proceedings; Ms. Manning now urges this Court to affirm that the
Sixth Amendment right to a public trial is one of the few fundamental rights
“public access [to courts] promotes not only the public's interest in monitoring the
4
The government asserts that Turner v. Rogers (564 U.S. 431 (2011)) stands for
the proposition that grand jury witness contempt proceedings do not implicate the
Sixth Amendment right to a public trial. Gov Opp. 48. The question the Supreme
Court faced in Turner was whether the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of Due
Process required the state of North Carolina to provide counsel at a civil contempt
child support hearing to an indigent person potentially facing incarceration. The
Court’s holding in Turner, that when a custodial parent entitled to receive the
support is unrepresented by counsel, the State need not provide counsel to the
noncustodial parent required to provide the support, is irrelevant to the issue of
whether perfunctorily opened contempt proceedings violate the Constitutional
rights of an alleged contemnor to due process and a public trial. Id. at 435.
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functioning of the courts but also the integrity of the judiciary.” Doe v. Pub.
The government argues that the general risk of the motions and contempt
hearings revealing information occurring before the grand jury justified abrogation
of Ms. Manning’s rights to Due Process and a public trial. The District Court did
not engage in any analysis balancing grand jury secrecy with Constitutional rights,
nor did the District Court require the government to do more than parrot selective
language from Rule 6(e) to justify closure of the hearings, the subpoena, and her
Courts navigating the tension between the rule imposing secrecy pursuant to
Rule 6(e) and the fundamental rights of alleged contemnors and the public have
required the government to show that the order imposing secrecy is a “compelling
Co., 356 U.S. 677, 682, 78 S.Ct. 983, 2 L.Ed.2d 1077 (1958). This test is in
harmony with the holdings of cases in the Fourth Circuit indicating that there is a
proceedings ... must be rare and only for cause shown that outweighs the value of
openness .... The interest is to be articulated along with findings specific enough
that a reviewing court can determine whether the closure order was properly
entered” In re: Knight Pub. Co., 743 F.2d 231 (4th Cir. 1984). The government
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mischaracterizes the unsealing of the transcripts and records in the District Court
as the result of a thoughtful approach by the District Court, when in fact on March
18, 2019 the government conceded to unsealing of the pleadings and most of the
transcripts but for the few pages that disclose the questions that were asked of Ms.
Manning during the grand jury proceeding. JA 331. The government’s concession
to Ms. Manning’s Motion to Unseal belies the government’s claim that all of the
proceedings with the exception of the final contempt finding were themselves
matters occurring before the grand jury. This Court should reverse the finding of
rights.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, Appellant respectfully requests that the finding of
Respectfully submitted,
CHELSEA MANNING
By Counsel
CHRISTOPHER LEIBIG
(VSB#40594)
114 N. Alfred Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
703-683-431 O
[email protected]
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