Supporters Crowdfund Manning’s Quarter Million Fine in a Blink

In the likely event that you need some news to give you a bit of faith in humanity today, you should know that supporters of whistleblower Chelsea Manning have raised over a quarter million dollars to pay the cruel, draconian fine that was heaped upon her for her principled stand against testifying at corrupt secret grand jury proceedings.

In just two days after Manning was released from prison, more than six thousand donors banded together to pay off the $258,000 fine assigned at a thousand dollars a day by a federal judge on top of imprisonment to coerce her to testify. Fundraising was so enthusiastic that it had overshot the goal and reached $267,002 before the GoFundMe was closed.

Those of us who support Manning have been looking at this more as a fine on us than on her, because of course we were never going to let a heroic whistleblower spend the rest of her life under crushing debt. The fact that the money came together so quickly and easily, though, says a lot about the beauty of humans in my opinion.

Now there’s a much humbler task of raising funds for Manning’s living expenses, which is a GoFundMe for a trust of $30,000. This fundraiser is just hours old and as of this writing it’s at $6,870, so we should have her set up with that in no time.

I am so in awe of all the wonderful people who’ve helped protect this legendary figure, both with their donations and with their efforts to draw attention to the fundraisers, from the stress and financial burden that this vicious regime tried to heap upon her. In times like this it’s very comforting to see the higher nature of human beings prevailing over sociopathy and authoritarianism.

Source: Caitlin Johnstone

Comments (12)
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  • Jozo Magoc

    Behind everything evil,you’ll find the satanic,zionist subhuman jew!!!

    • Vera Gottlieb

      Just can’t miss an opportunity to attack Jews, can you? Behind everything evil…Trump…is he Jewish?

      • itchyvet

        Vera, “Trump, is he Jewish ?” May as well be,

  • Mary E

    This is wonderful news! The human factor is so overwhelming that it debases what the US government has done to this tortured woman. Best of luck to her and godspeed!

  • CHUCKMAN

    Best piece of news I’ve read in a while.

    In the constant reports of threats and wars and lies that now make up our news, you do begin to wonder whether anyone decent remains.

    • Vera Gottlieb

      And most probably the few decent ones remaining are being made to shut up.

  • Vera Gottlieb

    Pay the fine and then leave the US and seek asylum. Russia? Any place and as far away from the US as you can get. Wish I could help…

    • Marty

      NZ warm, good people, only 5mill of kiwis having fun we got fibre 5g lots of inkohol and graa plus sheep cows, big cars little cars and EV’s too God Bless, but we are in lockdown at the mo, but welcome to stay with us in AKL

      • joey n

        I dunno. New Zealand is a member of the Five Eyes like the USA, the UK and Australia, so I’m not so sure about it.

    • joey n

      Learning a new language aside, Russia seems like a nice idea. Just one problem: Manning is transgender. How do you suppose “she” will be treated there?

      (I’m using scare quotes because I frankly doubt that some of us here are known for tolerating that sort of thing.)

      • Vera Gottlieb

        A detail I had forgotten…But perhaps Europe could help her. Not even animals behave the way too many of us do.

  • nick1111

    Judge is a scum