A petition to reduce the sentence of Chelsea Manning, a U.S. soldier serving a 35-year prison sentence for leaking classified government documents, surpassed the 100,000 signature threshold late Saturday night. The White House is now required to respond within 60 days. Manning and her supporters are demanding President Barack Obama commute her 35-year sentence down to the time she has already served, a little more than six years.
Manning thanked her supporters via a Twitter account that posts on her behalf:
The transgender soldier formerly known as Bradley Manning was arrested in 2010 for leaking more than 700,000 State Department documents to WikiLeaks while serving in the U.S. military. Manning was convicted in military court in 2013 for violating the Espionage Act.
Manning has gone on record stating that she took “full and complete responsibility” for her actions and called them “wrong,” according to the New York Times. However Manning has also gone on record saying:
“The sole relief I am asking for is to be released from military prison after serving six years of confinement as a person who did not intend to harm the interests of the United States or harm any service members,”
President Obama has less than 40 days to respond to Manning before president-elect Donald Trump takes office.
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