UPDATE: Chelsea Manning Will Testify Before a Grand Jury Today

UPDATE 03/06/19:

A judge denied Chelsea Manning's bid to quash the subpoena on Tuesday, Reuters reports. She will testify before a grand jury later today.

The Eastern District of Virginia has yet to confirm why Manning has been subpoenaed. Journalists have speculated that the former intelligence analyst, who served seven years in military confinement for leaking state documents to WiKiLeaks, will be asked to testify in a case involving WiKiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but the specifics of the situation remain unknown.

Chelsea Resists!, a group of activists who have mobilized to support Manning in the last week, denounce the grand jury's secrecy.

"By demanding that Chelsea testify and keeping the basic facts of this grand jury under seal, the government today denied the public's right to see this oppressive process in the light of day," the group said in a statement, via the Sparrow Project. "By challenging this subpoena, Chelsea joins dozens of activists who have refused to jeopardize themselves and their communities. After seven years of imprisonment and torture, Chelsea has suffered enough. We demand an end to this vindictive fishing expedition, and the abolition of the repressive grand jury system. #LeaveChelseaAlone!"

ORIGINAL STORY BELOW:

Chelsea Manning has been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury, but the reason why is unknown. Not even Manning -- a former army intelligence analyst-turned-speaker and trans advocate who served four years in military prison for leaking classified government documents to WikiLeaks -- seems to know what's up.

"Given what is going on, I am opposing this," Manning told the The New York Times. "I want to be very forthright I have been subpoenaed. I don't know the parameters of the subpoena apart from that I am expected to appear. I don't know what I'm going to be asked."

Though the reason for the subpoena remains unconfirmed, Times correspondent Charlie Savage suspects that it has something to do with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, pointing to the fact that the subpoena was issued by the Eastern District of Virginia, which also filed undisclosed criminal charges against Assange in November.

After learning about the subpoena, a group of activists mobilized to support Manning under the name Chelsea Resists!, the Sparrow Project reports, raising funds to combat what they believe to be a retaliatory act of government suppression.

"By serving Chelsea Manning with a grand jury subpoena, the government is attempting once again to punish an outspoken whistleblower for her historic disclosures," the group said in a statement. "By employing these tactics against her, the government is using a roundabout method to further punish Chelsea for her past actions, adding to the seven years of trauma, imprisonment and torture she has already endured."

"We stand with Chelsea in support of her refusal to participate in this repressive and undemocratic process," they added.

RELATED | Chelsea Manning Says the U.S. Has Gotten Worse Since WikiLeaks