Bradley Manning Trial Stenographer Crowdfunded By Nonprofit

Fed up with the military's limits on access to the court martial of Bradley Manning, the Army private who has admitted to sending hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents to the transparency organization WikiLeaks, a nonprofit group announced Thursday that it is crowdfunding a court stenographer to create daily trial transcripts.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation hopes to hire one or possibly two stenographers to provide reporters and the public with transcripts within 12 to 24 hours of proceedings in the trial, which begins June 3. 

Although Manning has admitted to charges that could bring a prison term of up to 20 years, the government is still prosecuting him on more serious charges of aiding the enemy and violating the Espionage Act, which could result in a life sentence.

"When it comes to freedom of information, leaks and whistleblowers, this is one of the most important trials in 40 years," said Trevor Timm, the group's executive director. "As even detractors of Manning will say, this really could affect future whistleblowers, and it's vital to the public to be able to see exactly what arguments the government is making."