Commuting Chelsea Manning’s sentence was just and proper
Before leaving office, President Barack Obama commuted the sentence of former Army soldier Chelsea (Bradley) Manning. At the time, Manning was serving a sentence of 35 years for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks in 2010. This material was subsequently published by WikiLeaks, embarrassing the U.S. government and exposing several previously undocumented war crimes that took place in Afghanistan and Iraq. The President’s decision to commute Manning’s sentence was extremely controversial. The verdict was made over the objection of Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, while other military and government officials quickly criticized Obama’s pronouncement. Just today, President Trump on Twitter referred to Manning as an “ungrateful traitor” who should have never been released from prison.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here