President Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence

President Barack Obama largely commuted the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the army intelligence analyst convicted of an enormous 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities across the world, disrupted the administration, and made WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures, famous. The decision by President Obama rescued Manning, who twice tried to commit suicide in 2016, from an uncertain future as a transgender woman incarcerated at the male military prison at Fort Leavenworth (KS). She has been jailed for nearly seven years, and her 35-year sentence was by far the longest punishment ever imposed in the United States for a leak conviction. Now, under the terms of President Obama’s commutation announced by the White House, Manning is set to be freed on May 17 of 2017, rather than in 2045.

In recent days, the White House had signaled that President Obama was seriously considering granting Manning’s commutation application, in contrast to a pardon application submitted on behalf of the other large-scale leaker of the era, Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who disclosed archives of top secret surveillance files and is living as a fugitive in Russia. “Chelsea Manning is somebody who went through the military criminal justice process, was exposed to due process, was found guilty, was sentenced for her crimes, and she acknowledged wrongdoing,” said White House spokesman Joshua Earnest. “Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary, and has sought refuge in a country that most recently made a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy.”