HAGERSTOWN, Md. – The WikiLeaks organization and a handful of journalists are asking a federal judge in Baltimore to order greater transparency in the court-martial of an Army private who has acknowledged sending reams of classified documents to the WikiLeaks website.
The Center for Constitutional Rights, representing WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court. It seeks an order requiring timely public access to documents in the court-martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning.
Manning's 3-year-old espionage case is headed for trial next month. Many records of the pretrial proceedings remain secret because the military contends the First Amendment doesn't require it to provide prompt public access to court-martial documents.
The military's highest court rejected the transparency case in April and suggested it belonged in civilian court.
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