Chelsea Manning Prison Sentence Commuted; Obama Shortens 35-Year Sentence

Before leaving the Oval office, President Barack Obama has commuted Chelsea Manning's sentence. Formerly known as Bradley Manning, she was the part of the 2010 leak that made the American military's activities open for the world to see. The leak was also responsible for putting the administration in chaos.

Manning has been serving a 35-year sentence and has served almost seven years of her sentence. She is known as inmate 89289 and has reportedly survived two incidents of suicide. Manning is a transgender and was said to be having a hard time surviving in a military prison designed for men. The 29-year-old Manning was a US Army private.

In 2013, Manning was sentenced because of the role that she played in exposing government secrets. Originally, she is supposed to be a free man in 2045, but because of Obama's pardon, Manning will be released from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas by May 17.

Aside from the failed suicide attempt twice, Manning also went on hunger strike and the military gave her gender dysphoria treatment - can be a hormone therapy treatment to address the challenges of her being transgender.

In a report by the New York Times, Manning has written in her commutation application that "I take full and complete responsibility for my decision to disclose these materials to the public," she wrote. "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 has been accused of treason because of making the sensitive intelligence reports public. The Prosecutors have alleged that because of the leak, enemies of the state were able to get a step ahead of the government security plans. The leak had confidential conversations, dossiers, diplomatic cables and a video of a helicopter attack in Baghdad that resulted in the killing of two journalists.