Chelsea Manning Punished for Old Toothpaste

Chelsea Manning has been banned from going outside or using the Fort Leavenworth prison library for 21 days after being found guilty of prison infractions including having an expired tube of toothpaste and the Caitlyn Jenner issue of Vanity Fair. The punishment is minor compared to the indefinite solitary confinement she could have been sentenced to, but her ACLU lawyer tells USA Today that the Army private will "carry these infractions through her parole and clemency process and will be held longer in the more restrictive custody where she is now incarcerated."

The lawyer says it sets a "concerning precedent" that Manning wasn't allowed to have legal counsel during the hearing, which lasted four hours. The "convictions will follow me thru to any parole/clemency hearing forever. Was expecting to be in min custody in Feb, now years added," said a tweet from Manning's official account. Ahead of the hearing, a petition with more than 100,000 signatures seeking the dismissal of the charges was dropped off at the Army liaison office in Congress, and Manning's lawyer says it was that support that kept her from getting solitary, the Guardian reports. (More Chelsea Manning stories.)