Reporting from the ongoing sentencing phase of the Bradley Manning trial on Wednesday explains that another key portion of the government’s argument against the army whistleblower was thrown out by the judge, the latest in a series of small victories for the defense.

As the Associated Press reports, the presiding judge rejected two arguments by the prosecution about the “chilling effect” the disclosure of US diplomatic cables had on foreign governments and other international actors who might engage with the US State Department. Specifically:

On Monday, a separate decision by Lind saw Manning’s possible maximum sentence reduced from 136 years to 90 years, after the defense argued successfully that the government had split single criminal charges into many thereby expanding the possible sentence length.