Witness | US v Pfc. Manning, Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman, Officer in Charge of the T-SCIF, S2 Section, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Div.

posted December 8, 2011

UPDATE POST COURT-MARTIAL

United States v. Pfc. Manning was conducted in de facto secrecy. The public was not granted contemporaneous access to court filings or rulings during her trial. In addition to reporting on her trial, I transcribed the proceedings, reconstructed the censored appellate list, and un-redact any publicly available documentation, in order to foster public comprehension of her unprecedented trial.

As a result of a lawsuit against the military judge and the Military District of Washington brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights, as well as my own FOIA requests and research, an official court record for US v. Pfc. Manning was released seven months after her trial. That record is not complete.

The official trial docket is published HERE and the entire collection of documents is text searchable at usvmanning.org.

*During the pretrial proceedings, court-martial and sentencing of Pfc. Manning, Chelsea requested to be identified as Bradley and addressed using the male pronoun. In a letter embargoed for August 22, 2013 Chelsea proclaimed that she is female and wished to be addressed from that moment forward as Chelsea E. Manning.

General Description

Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman was the Officer in Charge of the T-SCIF where Pfc. Bradley Manning worked at FOB Hammer, S2 Section, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division.

Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman provided a sworn statement for the Secretary of the Army’s 15-6 investigation into the alleged unauthorized disclosures.

Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman is referred to in the Article 32 Pretrial Hearing testimony of Sergeant (former Specialist) Daniel Padgett; Specialist Jihrleah Showman; and Captain Steven Lim, Brigade S2.

Sergeant (former Specialist) Daniel Padgett testified that during an alleged December 2009 incident, Pfc. Manning allegedly “turned the table upside down and was restrained by an S2 officer [Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman].” Padgett testified that after Pfc. Manning allegedly flipped the table over, everything hit the ground. Padgett testified that he allegedly moved Pfc. Manning away, because Padgett saw there were weapons. Padgett testified that the officer in charge, Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman restrained Pfc. Manning by sitting him on a bench and telling Pfc. Manning to sit. Padgett testified that during the alleged December 2009 incident “We cleared the room.” Reitman notes that Padgett testified that “two computers and a radio crashed to the ground”. Sgt. Padgett put his hand on PFC Manning to calm him down. Moments later, the Chief Warrant Officer [Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman] put PFC Manning in a “full nelson” style wrestling head lock.”

Captain Steven Lim, Brigade S2 testified that while he was told about the December 2009 incident with Pfc. Manning and Sergeant (former Specialist) Daniel Padgett, he was not told that Pfc. Manning had allegedly flipped a table and damaged a computer and Government property, or that Pfc. Manning was allegedly “going for his weapon” and had to be restrained and “dragged” out of the T-SCIF by Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman. Captain Steven Lim, Brigade S2 testified that he considered the December 2009 incident with Sergeant (former Specialist) Daniel Padgett cause for a derog (derogatory classification), “if ruled by the proper authorizing authority”.

Specialist Jihrleah Showman testified about a 7 May 2010 incident that occurred between between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. (around shift change) in the conference room of the T-SCIF where she said she saw Pfc. Manning curled into a ball on the floor in the fetal position. Showman testified that she reported the incident to Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman and told Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman “Be ready for something to happen again.” Showman testified after seeing the incident she left the T-SCIF because it was the end of her work day. Showman testified that on 8 May 2010 at around 12:00 a.m. or 1:00 a.m., Showman was awoken and called back to the T-SCIF. Captain Casey Martin (married name Fulton) testified that she called Specialist Jihrleah Showman back to the T-SCIF. Showman testified that she was allegedly assaulted by Pfc. Manning. Showman testified that after Pfc. Manning allegedly assaulted her, Showman pinned Manning to the ground. Showman testified that after she pinned Manning to the ground, Pfc. Manning said, “I’m tired of this.” Showman testified that Pfc. Manning also allegedly said that he was scared Behavioral Health would find out about him and that if they found out they would remove him from the Army.

The Government objected to the defense request for the testimony of Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman, Office in Charge of the T-SCIF, S2 Section, Second Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division at the December 2011 Article 32 Pretrial Hearing, stating his testimony was “not relevant to the Article 32 investigation and will only serve to distract from the relevant issues.” While there is no official public record of Almanza’s denial of this witness’ testimony, Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman, Office in Charge of the T-SCIF, S2 Section, Second Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division did not appear during any open session of the Article 32 Pretrial Hearing. The public record shows that at least fourteen witnesses were granted to defense for the Article 32 Pretrial Hearing. In Lt. Col. Almanza’s ruling on the Defense Request for Article 32 Witnesses, 12 witnesses were granted to the defense, 10 of whom were also requested by the Government. Defense said in open Court on December 16, 2011, that Lt. Col. Almanza granted two additional witnesses to defense that morning.

Defense’s account of Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman sworn statement is contained in their Defense Request for Article 32 Witnesses

No. 24 on the December 2, 2011 Defense Request for Article 32 Witnesses

XXXXXXXXXX [Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman] He will testify that he was told by XXXXXXXXXX [WHO IS THIS?] and XXXXXXXXXX [WHO IS THIS?] that he was not responsible for any personnel who worked in the S2. He will testify that on several occasions he returned to XXXXXXXXXX [WHO IS THIS?] and [WHO IS THIS?] to clarify their expectations about his responsibilities regarding enlisted Soldiers and Officers and his non-role in soldier leadership was reinforced on each occasion. XXXXXXXXXX [Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) Joshua Ehresman] was aware of multiple emotional outbursts by PFC Manning. He will testify that prior to the deployment he recommended that PFC Manning should not deploy and expressed this directly to XXXXXXXXXX [WHO IS THIS?], XXXXXXXXXX [WHO IS THIS?] and XXXXXXXXXX [WHO IS THIS?]. He will testify that he was told that PFC Manning would deploy due to manpower issues. He will testify that he witnessed an incident in December of 2009 by PFC Manning that required him to physically involve himself in the situation in order to ensure PFC Manning did not try to harm himself or others. After this emotional outburst, he will testify that he spoke to XXXXXXXXXX [AN UNIDENTIFIED FIRST SERGEANT] and recommended that he take the bolt from PFC Manning’s weapon, send him to mental health and then get him out of the Army. He also spoke with XXXXXXXXXX [WHO IS THIS?], XXXXXXXXXX [WHO IS THIS?] and XXXXXXXXXX [WHO IS THIS?] about his concerns after the outburst by PFC Manning. He will testify that even after expressing these concerns, nothing was done.