Chelsea Manning, she of the WikiLeaks controversy that landed her in prison until 2045, is slated to be released in May of this year.
“Testimony at the trial showed that she had been in a mental and emotional crisis as she came to grips, amid the stress of a war zone, with the fact that she was not merely gay but had gender dysphoria. She had been behaving erratically, including angry outbursts and lapsing into catatonia midsentence. At one point she had emailed a photograph of herself in a woman’s wig to her supervisor,” the New York Times reports.
“I take full and complete responsibility for my decision to disclose these materials to the public,” she wrote in her application for commutation. “I have never made any excuses for what I did. I pleaded guilty without the protection of a plea agreement because I believed the military justice system would understand my motivation for the disclosure and sentence me fairly. I was wrong.”
Manning, who brought transgender issues to the dinner table just a few years ago, had the Obama administration up in arms with the security information leaked, will likely fare better than Edward Snowden, a leak provocateur also seeking clemency from the departing administration.
“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,” White House spokesman Joshua Earnest said to the Times. “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.”
