Chelsea Manning's Suicide Attempt

Chelsea Manning, the U.S. Army whistle-blower who is serving a 35-year prison sentence for leaking classified information, tried to kill herself last week, her legal team has confirmed.

In a statement Monday, her attorneys said they had spoken to Manning for the first time since her hospitalization last week. Here’s more:

Last week, Chelsea made a decision to end her life. Her attempt to take her own life was unsuccessful. She knows that people have questions about how she is doing and she wants everyone to know that she remains under close observation by the prison and expects to remain on this status for the next several weeks. For us, hearing Chelsea’s voice after learning that she had attempted to take her life last week was incredibly emotional. She is someone who has fought so hard for so many issues we care about and we are honored to fight for her freedom and medical care.

News reports last week, citing anonymous sources, said Manning was in hospital after she tried to kill herself. Her legal team was incensed that this information was leaked, and that they were not allowed to speak to her. In their statement, her attorneys criticized what they called “the government’s gross breach of confidentiality in disclosing her personal health information to the media,” which they said had “created the very real concern that they may continue their unauthorized release of information about her publicly without warning.”

On Monday Manning tweeted that she was all right.

I am okay. I'm glad to be alive. Thank you all for your love <3 I will get through this. #standwithchelsea

— Chelsea Manning (@xychelsea) July 12, 2016

Manning, who previously was known as Bradley Manning, identifies as a woman. While working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, Manning leaked 700,000 secret files to Wikileaks. The Army convicted Manning, who is now serving a 35-year sentence at an all-male, maximum-security military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.