Obama Commutes Chelsea Manning's Prison Sentence

Ex-intelligence analyst more than 6 years into a 35-year sentence for leaking classified documents

By AP

U.S. President Barack Obama is commuting the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the former army intelligence analyst who leaked classified documents.

The White House says Manning is one of 209 inmates whose sentences Obama is shortening.

Manning is more than six years into a 35-year sentence for leaking classified government and military documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. Her sentence is now set to expire May 17.

She was known as Bradley Manning at the time of her 2010 arrest and attempted suicide twice last year.

Chase Strangio, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's LGBT Project who has been representing Manning, said he was "relieved and thankful" that the president commuted the decades-long sentence.

"Since she was first taken into custody, Chelsea has been subjected to long stretches of solitary confinement — including for attempting suicide — and has been denied access to medically necessary health care," Strangio said, adding that the president's decision "could quite literally" save Manning's life.

Obama is also pardoning 64 people, including retired general James Cartwright, who was charged with making false statements during a probe into disclosure of classified information.

Most of the other people receiving commutations were serving sentences for non-violent drug offences.

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