Story highlights
Judge said Manning knew possible consequences to U.S.
Army private to be sentenced
Manning says he recognizes he has to pay a price for his actions
Col. Denise Lind, the Army judge who found Pfc. Bradley Manning guilty on 20 of 22 counts in the largest classified leak case in U.S. history explained her thinking, calling Manning’s conduct “wrongful.”
When Lind handed down her verdicts in July, Manning’s lawyers asked her to issue her “special findings” for the guilty counts. That document was released Friday at Fort Meade, Maryland, where the sentencing phase of the trial continues.
One of the questions that both sides debated at length during the court-martial was whether by leaking material to WikiLeaks, Manning also was providing it to the enemy.
She ruled Manning had “knowledge that intelligence published on the Internet was accessible to al Qaeda.”
The judge went on to say that “Manning’s conduct was of a heedless nature that made it actually and imminently dangerous to others. His conduct was both wanton and reckless.”
Bradley Manning’s father says son was ‘grandstanding’
Lind said that Manning had “reason to believe the information could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation.”
Manning told the court Wednesday, in an unsworn statement, “I am sorry. I am sorry that my actions hurt people. I am sorry that it hurt the United States.”
He went on to say, “Unfortunately, I can’t go back and change things. I can only go forward. I want to go forward. Before I can do that, though, I understand that I must pay a price for my decisions and actions.”
Manning faces up to 90 years, minus time served.