A military judge has ordered the Obama administration to disclose a number of confidential documents related to WikiLeaks.
Specifically, the government was forced to hand over an official State Department “damage assessment” report to Pfc. Bradley Manning’s defense team earlier this week.
The report offers a detailed analysis of damage to US interests that Manning allegedly caused by transferring classified documents which ultimately ended up on the whistle-blowing WikiLeaks website.
According to the UK-based Guardian, Manning’s defense team will now be permitted to peruse a redacted report about WikiLeaks authored by the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
David Coombs, Manning’s civilian lawyer, is also expected to request the conclusion of a similar FBI analysis of WikiLeaks related fallout.
As TG Daily previously reported, the US government had steadfastly refused to release the above-mentioned documents over the past few months.
“By morphing, distorting and constantly changing definitions, the government is trying to ‘define’ itself out of producing relevant discovery,” Coombs wrote in a series of legal documents earlier this month.
“This is very disconcerting to the defense… [And] it cannot be permitted to do this… The defense believes that no defense discovery request would ever be ‘just right’ to satisfy Goldilocks.”
Pfc. Bradley Manning is facing a total of 22 charges – including aiding the enemy – after thousands of classified documents downloaded by the former army intelligence analyst were published on the whistle-blowing website.
Manning’s military trial is slated to begin on September 21. If found guilty, the former army intelligence analyst will likely spend the rest of his life in the brig without the chance of parole.
