Chelsea Manning was released from U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, today after seven years of incarceration. The former Army Intelligence analyst was originally sentenced to 35 years for leaking approximately 750,000 secret documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, and disrupting international diplomacy. Her sentence was commuted in January by Barack Obama.

Manning said in a statement to ABC News:

Manning, who came out as transgender soon after sentencing and began hormone therapy in prison, posted her “first steps to freedom” on Instagram on Wednesday morning. </s> Fort Leavenworth, Kansas – After seven years behind bars, Army leaker Chelsea Manning walked out of a military prison early Wednesday morning.

In January, then-President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence for leaking troves of military intelligence records to the website Wikileaks.

Chelsea Manning was released from Fort Leavenworth in the dead of night with no fanfare according to a U.S. Army official.

Manning served just seven years of a 35-year sentence for releasing a trove of classified information to Wikileaks.

Former President Obama, as one of his final and more controversial acts in office, commuted the remainder of Manning’s sentence, saying he believed 35-years was disproportionate to what other leakers have received and that justice had been served.

Manning came out as a transgender woman shortly after her conviction and has had a rough time in prison according to her attorneys, attempting suicide twice.

Manning’s legal team is not releasing any information about her immediate future plans, only saying she will continue to appeal her conviction.

While that appeal goes forward Manning will remain a member of the U.S. Military, eligible for benefits but not pay.

$140,000 has been raised on-line to help Manning re-acclimate and start a new life.

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 Note: By commenting below you agree to abide by the KOBI5.com commenting guidelines. View the KOBI5.com Comment Board Guidelines » </s> American army private is free after serving seven years of 35-year sentence for leaking classified documents and videos downloaded to WikiLeaks

Chelsea Manning, the army private who released a vast trove of US state secrets and was punished by the US military for months in penal conditions denounced by the UN as torture, has been released from a military prison in Kansas after serving seven years of a 35-year sentence.

Chelsea Manning (@xychelsea) First steps of freedom!! 😄https://t.co/kPPWV5epwa#ChelseaIsFree pic.twitter.com/0R5pXqA1VN

Manning walked out to freedom after 2,545 days in military captivity. She was arrested in May 2010 outside a US army base on the outskirts of Baghdad, having leaked hundreds of thousands of documents and videos downloaded from intelligence databases to WikiLeaks.

The US military confirmed that Manning was released on Wednesday morning.

Timeline: Chelsea Manning's long journey to freedom Read more

A couple of hours after her release, Manning said in a statement: “After another anxious four months of waiting, the day has finally arrived. I am looking forward to so much! Whatever is ahead of me, is far more important than the past. I’m figuring things out right now–which is exciting, awkward, fun, and all new for me.”



Manning’s disclosures included Collateral Murder, the footage of a US Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad in which two Reuters journalists and other civilians were killed.

Her seven-year ordeal has seen her held captive in Iraq, Kuwait and the US, always in male-only detention facilities. In that time, she has waged a relentless legal battle to be respected as a transgender woman, winning the right to receive hormone treatment but still being subjected to male-standard hair length and dress codes.

Barack Obama granted Manning clemency in his final days in office in January. In commuting to time served her 35-year sentence – the longest ever penalty dished out in the US to an official leaker – the outgoing commander in chief said that “justice had been served”.



Speaking from her prison cell as she prepared for release last week, Manning said: “I’m looking forward to breathing the warm spring air again.



“I want that indescribable feeling of connection with people and nature again, without razor wire or a visitation booth. I want to be able to hug my family and friends again. And swimming – I want to go swimming!”

What happens to Chelsea Manning now she has been released? What kind of life does she emerge into? Manning enters the civilian world as a celebrity transgender woman who is regarded as a hero on the left and within the LGBT community, but a traitor among conservatives and many in the military. Where will she live? She has indicated she wants to return to Maryland, where she was based before she entered the army. What is her military status? Her conviction remains in place, and as a result her active military status. Her lawyers are continuing to appeal her conviction and until that process is completed she will not be discharged from the army. How will she make ends meet? There are several fundraising efforts underway to help her transition to civilian life and cover her legal fees. She will be in demand as a commentator and speaker.

Obama’s decision to release the soldier early leaves her with legal challenges still hanging over her. Foremost of those is the fact that her sentence from 2013 under the Espionage Act remains in full force ­– a fact that her lawyers regard as ominous given the current incumbent of the White House.

As a result, even in freedom Manning will continue to press vigorously for her sentence to be overturned. Her appeal, filed almost exactly a year ago in the US army court of criminal appeals, argued that her 35-year sentence was “perhaps the most unjust sentence in the history of the military justice system”.

Manning’s appeal lawyer, Nancy Hollander, told the Guardian: “People keep assuming that just because someone is released their appeal is over. The rest of her case is still out there and we want to clear her name. She was convicted of crimes that I don’t believe she committed and her whole prosecution was unfair.”

A fundraising drive drive to help Manning raise the legal fees needed to keep going with the appeal has been launched by Courage Foundation together with the German branch of Reporters Without Borders and the Wau Holland Foundation.

Manning’s mother, Susan Manning, who is Welsh, told the Press Association that she was rejoicing at news of the release. “I am so proud of Chelsea and delighted she will finally be free again.”

Manning moved to Haverfordwest in Wales in 2001 when she was 14 to live with her mother, but returned to the US where she was born and brought up after school ended.

Chelsea Manning prepares for life after prison: 'I can see a future for myself' Read more

Susan Manning said: “It is going to be very hard for her to readjust after so long inside the prison’s four walls and I’m happy she will be staying in Maryland where she has family to look out for her. Chelsea is so intelligent and talented, I hope she now has the chance to go to college to complete her studies, and to do and be whatever she wants. My message to Chelsea? Two words: ‘Go, girl!’”

Though Manning’s release was greeted with a chorus of rejoicing on social media, one voice struck a more somber tone. David Coombs, the soldier’s trial lawyer, put out a statement in which he said that the 35-year sentence handed down to the Army private amounted to a “grievous wrong”.

“The day that Manning is released from prison should be a day of unadulterated joy for me,” Coombs wrote. “But it’s not. It is a day that I am reflecting on how the military justice system could veer so far off course.”

The lawyer added that “the particular constellation of players involved in this case, the desire to make an example out of Manning, and the ‘win at all costs’ mentality of the prosecution created a powder keg where the ability to achieve a just result was impossible. So I don’t see Manning’s commutation as a victory. I see it as an unfortunate failure of military justice to do its job.” </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.

Obama is also pardoning 64 people, including retired Gen. 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 nonviolent drug offenses.

This is a developing story. Please check back for more information. </s> KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on the release of Pvt. Chelsea Manning from a Kansas military prison (all times local):

Media reports say Pvt. Chelsea Manning has been released from a Kansas military prison after serving seven years of her 35-year sentence for leaking classified government materials to WikiLeaks.

NBC News, citing an unnamed U.S Army official, says Manning was released from Fort Leavenworth military prison Wednesday at around 2 a.m. Central Time. The BBC also cites an unnamed Army representative in reporting she has left the facility. The Associated Press has not confirmed these reports.

Former President Barack Obama granted Manning clemency during his final days in office.

Manning, an Oklahoma native, was convicted in 2013 of 20 counts, including six Espionage Act violations, theft and computer fraud.

Previously known as Bradley Manning, the former intelligence analyst in Iraq said she wanted to expose what she considered to be the U.S. military’s disregard of the effects of war on civilians.

Pvt. Chelsea Manning is due to be released from a Kansas military prison after serving seven years of her 35-year sentence for leaking classified government materials to WikiLeaks.

The transgender soldier is scheduled to be freed from Fort Leavenworth on Wednesday in accordance with former President Barack Obama’s decision to grant her clemency in his final days in office.

The Oklahoma native’s attorneys and the Army have refused to say precisely when and how she will be released, citing potential safety concerns.

The former intelligence analyst in Iraq acknowledged leaking the materials, saying she wanted to expose what she considered to be the U.S. military’s disregard of the effects of war on civilians.

She was known as Bradley Manning before transitioning in prison. </s> President Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning. Manning, who was sentenced to 35 years in 2013, will be released on May 17.

This is a developing story. Please check back for more information. </s> President Barack Obama commuted Chelsea Manning’s 35-year prison sentence in a large push of commutations and pardons on Tuesday, January 17. According to the New York Times, the transgender former soldier will be released from prison on May 17 instead of in the year 2045.

Manning, previously known as Bradley Manning, has been incarcerated at the male military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for the past nearly seven years. She was convicted in 2013 of disclosing hundreds of thousands of classified government and military documents to WikiLeaks in 2010. Manning, 29, claimed at the time that she made the files public to incite “worldwide discussion, debates and reforms.”

White House spokesman Josh Earnest explained the “pretty stark difference” between Manning’s case and that of Edward J. Snowden on Tuesday, stating that while their offenses were similar, there were “some important differences.” (Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said last year that he would surrender to U.S. authorities if President Obama pardoned Manning.)



“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,” Earnest explained. “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.”

Manning attempted suicide twice during her sentence and last year went on a hunger strike, which she ended after the military agreed to provide her with gender dysphoria treatment.



Including Manning, Obama granted commutations to 209 individuals and pardons to 64 others.

Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics, and more delivered straight to your inbox! </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama commuted the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning on Tuesday, allowing the convicted Army leaker to go free nearly three decades early as part of a sweeping move to offer clemency in the final days of his administration.

Manning, who will leave prison in May, was one of 209 inmates whose sentences Obama was shortening, a list that includes Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Lopez-Rivera. Obama also pardoned 64 people, including retired Gen. James Cartwright, who was charged with making false statements during a probe into disclosure of classified information.

“These 273 individuals learned that our nation is a forgiving nation,” said White House counsel Neil Eggleston, “where hard work and a commitment to rehabilitation can lead to a second chance, and where wrongs from the past will not deprive an individual of the opportunity to move forward.”

Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst, has been serving a 35-year sentence for leaking classified government and military documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. She asked Obama last November to commute her sentence to time served.

Manning has spent more than six years behind bars. She was convicted in military court in 2013 of six violations of the Espionage Act and 14 other offenses for leaking more than 700,000 documents and some battlefield video to WikiLeaks.

She was known as Bradley Manning at the time of her 2010 arrest and is being held at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Manning was an intelligence analyst in Iraq and has acknowledged leaking the documents, but has said it was done to raise public awareness about the effects of war on civilians.

She attempted suicide twice last year, according to her lawyers, citing her treatment at Leavenworth.

Chase Strangio, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Manning, said the president’s action “quite literally save Chelsea’s life.”

“We are all better off knowing that Chelsea Manning will walk out of prison a free woman, dedicated to making the world a better place and fighting for justice for so many,” Stangio said in a statement.

The U.S. Army declined to comment.

Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, received a pardon, the White House said. He pleaded guilty in October to making false statements during an investigation into a leak of classified information about a covert cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Prosecutors said Cartwright falsely told investigators that he did not provide information contained in a news article and in a book by New York Times journalist David Sanger, and said he also misled prosecutors about classified information shared with another journalist, Daniel Klaidman.

The Justice Department sought a sentence of two years, saying employees of the U.S. government are entrusted each day with sensitive classified information.

“They must understand that disclosing such information to persons not authorized to receive it has severe consequences,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed this month.

Commutations reduce sentences being served but don’t erase convictions. Pardons generally restore civil rights, such as voting, often after a sentence has been served.

Most of the other people receiving commutations were serving sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Vivian Salama, John Hanna, Eric Tucker and Danica Cota contributed to this report. </s> WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Tuesday commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning and pardoned James Cartwright.

Manning was convicted of stealing and disseminating 750,000 pages of documents and videos to WikiLeaks.

She will be freed from prison on May 17, 2017 instead of in 2045.

Manning, a transgender woman and former US Army soldier, was serving a 35-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, an all-male Army prison in eastern Kansas, despite her request to transfer to a civilian prison.

The material, which WikiLeaks published in 2010, included a classified video of a US helicopter attacking civilians and journalists in Iraq in 2007. Labeled “Collateral Murder,” the film drew criticism from human rights activists for the deaths of innocent people.

When asked about WikiLeaks in the wake of the releases, President-elect Donald Trump told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade in 2010: “I think it’s disgraceful. I think there should be like death penalty or something.”

Though found guilty on 20 out of 22 possible charges (including violating the US Espionage Act), Manning was not convicted of the most serious one; aiding the enemy, which could have earned the private a life sentence.

Instead, the former intelligence analyst was sentenced to 35 years in prison, as well as demoted from private first class to private and dishonorably discharged.

Earlier this month, WikiLeaks said it would agree to a US extradition request for the site’s founder, Julian Assange, if Obama granted clemency to Manning. It was not immediately clear if WikiLeaks would make good on its promise.

More than 117,000 people signed an online petition in Dec. 2016 that sought a commutation of Manning’s sentence.

“Chelsea has already served more time in prison than any individual in United States history who disclosed information in the public interest,” the petition read. “Her disclosures harmed no one.”

Obama shortened the sentences for 209 inmates and granted 64 pardons on Tuesday.

According to the White House, President Obama issued the most grants of commutation by any president in the nation’s history. He’s now reduced sentences for 1,385 people. The majority of those people were serving crimes for crimes related to drug sales and distribution. He’s also pardoned an additional 212 people.

“These 273 individuals learned that our nation is a forgiving nation, where hard work and a commitment to rehabilitation can lead to a second chance, and where wrongs from the past will not deprive an individual of the opportunity to move forward,” read a statement on the White House website.

This is a developing story, check back for updated information.
United States Army soldier Chelsea Manning is released from prison after serving seven years. Manning was sentenced by a U.S. military court to 35 years in prison, but her sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama.