President Obama commutes most of Chelsea Manning’s sentence

President Barack Obama on Tuesday commuted the majority of Chelsea Manning’s remaining prison sentence, and she is now scheduled to be released on May 17th, 2017, rather than in 2045. Manning is the former army intelligence analyst who provided hundreds of thousands of classified military files to Wikileaks in 2010, including a video of a US helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed two Reuters journalists. The video and accompanying data catapulted Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange, into the limelight.

In 2013, Manning was convicted of violating the Espionage Act and sentenced to 35 years in Fort Leavenworth prison. Manning is a transgender woman who was known as Bradley when she was an active army analyst. LGBTQ activists and Manning’s lawyers have been calling for her sentence to be commuted, arguing she is in danger at Fort Leavenworth, a male military prison. She attempted to commit suicide twice last year.

Manning is irrevocably tied to Wikileaks and Assange, the organization’s founder who also faces espionage charges in the US for publishing the information that Manning provided. Assange is currently hiding out in Ecuador, which has granted him asylum as he flees authorities in multiple countries: On top of his charges in the US related to Wikileaks, he’s wanted in Sweden to answer allegations of rape and sexual assault.

In September, Assange said that he would turn himself in to the US if Manning was granted clemency or the charges against her were dropped. Additionally, just five days ago, the Wikileaks Twitter account said, “If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case.”

There’s no word yet on Assange’s plans now that Manning’s sentence has been mostly commuted.

Developing…

Source: The New York Times