IANAL. My understanding is that "Punishment fines" aren't dischargable in a Chapter 7, but a chapter 13 could be used to help make it easier to pay them down over time. "Reimbursement fines," which are fines where the government is trying to recoup its costs, are dischargable.
Now, Manning was held in civil contempt and not criminal contempt, which MIGHT make a difference, but I'm guessing not for chapter 7? But, again, not a lawyer.
You don’t “avoid” fines by declaring bankruptcy. You can go through a bankruptcy process and as the debtor you may be forgiven from certain things that the other side will clearly never receive money from, but this isn’t a clean slate trick you just do and walk away from.
You basically convert your obligation into distrust. And can “refinance” some debts including judgments against you.
So, could Manning go through bankruptcy and have the court never receive their money, yes. But I wouldn’t say this is “avoiding the fine”, just changing it.
I have no idea what the implications of bankruptcy are in the US, but it sounds like you are alluding to something serious - aside from no credit, what would Manning face in this scenario?
No, you are entirely misreading that. You don’t just get everything reset to zero. So bad credit, yes, but also maybe a condition is that you are still on the hook for legal fees but they have been worked down to 50,000 and the payments have been rescheduled to 20 years.
