Recently, the BBC World Service interviewed trans activist and whistleblower Chelsea Manning during her visit to London to promote a new VPN service she developed.
Manning is no stranger to controversy, starting back in 2010 when she disclosed 750,000 classified or sensitive, military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks. BBC reporter Rebecca Kesby tried to play into into Manning’s history by asking her about her attendance at a court hearing for Luigi Mangione, the man suspected of murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
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this clip of chelsea manning on bbc world service is very funny because the interviewer is trying her absolute hardest to get a damning soundbite about luigi mangione and just Completely fails.
— Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief (@katie.bzky.team) March 17, 2025 at 7:36 PM
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When asked why she attended the hearing, Manning stated it was because the case piqued her interest.
“You had a case where a fairly simple crime is being treated as a political crime as terrorism,” she explained, “which is unusual. I don’t recall a case like this rising to the level of terrorism.”
Kesby responded, stating that: “this was a very high profile murder, cold-blooded murder, captured on video in the streets. And, obviously, that frightens people. They want the perpetrator to face justice for murder.”
This is similar to the narrative that mainstream news is portraying in this case, but from what I’ve seen, many consider Mangione to be a Robin Hood-style folk hero. This could be because many Americans at this point have—or know someone who has—been denied medical coverage by their insurance company for ridiculous reasons, with some even dying from being denied essential services.
Manning touches on this in her rebuttal, stating: “It feels like there is a protected class of certain individuals who are treated differently by the criminal justice system. The Mayor of New York, Donald Trump.”
Kesby tried to get back on to the topic of trying to get Manning to admit she supported Mangione.
“I was there because I have very grave concerns about how they’re handling this case,” Manning clarified.
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Manning brings up an important point about Mangione’s case. It’s being treated as an act of terrorism rather than murder, which is definitely something to pay attention to. The Patriot Act is already a quite problematic law given how nebulously we define terrorism. Currently, terrorism is defined as an act of violence committed to further a political ideology, which is a far too broad definition. For instance, anyone who assaults a trans person could be prosecuted currently under the Patriot Act because it is an act of violence that furthers the ideology of transphobia, but of course the law never works that way. Similarly, if a riot officer beats up a peaceful protestor, they could be said to be using violence to suppress an ideology.
In all likelihood, police and law enforcement would never use it that way. Instead, they abuse a system that gives them unchecked power to spy on U.S. citizens and hold people indefinitely for having a political belief that the administration doesn’t agree with. Mangione’s case has brought all of this to the forefront, and Manning is simply pointing that out in plain terms.
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