With three days to go in his term, President Obama commutes the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning. She released hundreds of thousands of military documents. People died as a result of her releasing these documents. She had a 35 year sentence, which even that seemed light at the time of sentencing. It was pleaded down a great deal to get to 35 years.
Peopled Died From Chelsea Manning's Actions
According to Wikileaks, this clemency was granted in exchange for US extradition for Julian Assange.
If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case https://t.co/MZU30SlfGK
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 12, 2017
On Tuesday Julian Assange also claimed that he will win any fair trial in the United States. Additionally, Wikileaks was celebrating the news of Chelsea Manning clemency.
VICTORY: Obama commutes Chelsea Manning sentence from 35 years to 7. Release date now May 17. Background: https://t.co/HndsbVbRer
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 17, 2017
Manning's clemency stifles howls over Obama's failure to pardon Snowden, keeping civil-liberties crowd & NSA+CIA+IC onside for war v Trump.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 18, 2017
President Obama Commutes the Prison Sentence of Chelsea Manning
Chelsea Manning stole over 750,000 documents and videos and provided them to Wikileaks. She was convicted in 2013. One of the videos Manning stole was a classified video of a US helicopter attacking civilians and journalists in Iraq in 2007.
Many, many people are not happy with the actions of President Obama. For one, Speaker Paul Ryan.
Chelsea Manning's treachery put American lives at risk and exposed some of our nation's most sensitive secrets.
My full statement ↓ pic.twitter.com/PcQrgK2SI3
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) January 17, 2017