Military judge Colonel Denise Lind who is overseeing the court-martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning denied defense motions seeking to throw out two charges against him, including the most serious one of aiding the enemy, CNN reported. That charge would carry a maximum penalty of life in prison. Colonel Lind said the government had met the burden to present evidence that the crimes had been committed.
Bradley Manning has been charged with the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. History. A former Army intelligence analyst, Manning has been accused of handing over a large share of documents and other sensitive classified information to Wikileaks.
Manning's lawyers asked the judge to toss out two charges on July 8. He has already pleaded guilty to nearly a dozen lesser charges which may carry up to 20 years in prison
Manning has already admitted to leaking the classified material to Wikileaks but denies he ever intended to undermine national security, as some of his critics, and prosecutors have charged.
Manning said that he passed on information that both "upset" or "disturbed" him but reiterated that he did not give anything he thought would harm the United States if it were made public.
"I believed if the public was aware of the data, it would start a public debate of the wars," he told the court in June.
Some, like Daniel Ellsberg see Manning as necessary whistle-blower to confront the U.S. military's apparatus. Ellsberg, who in 1971, leaked sensitive government information about U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
