Alexandria, Virginia (CNN) Chelsea Manning is facing a contempt hearing and possible jail time after refusing to answer questions about her 2010 public disclosure of military secrets before a grand jury this week, she said in a statement Thursday.

Manning objected to every question she was asked and asserted her first, fourth and sixth amendment privileges throughout testimony in a Virginia federal courthouse Wednesday, she said.

On Friday, Manning will appear before Judge Claude M. Hilton for a contempt hearing, returning the controversial advocate to the center of a privacy and criminal justice debate nearly 10 years after she first shared thousands of classified military and diplomatic files with WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, who appears now to be in the government's crosshairs.

"In solidarity with many activists facing the odds, I will stand by my principles," Manning said . "My legal team continues to challenge the secrecy of these proceedings, and I am prepared to face the consequences of my refusal."

Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst, was convicted in 2013 for the unprecedented leak that included millions of State Department cables and a classified video of a US helicopter firing on civilians and journalists in Iraq in 2007.

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