Manning seeks presidential pardon in WikiLeaks case
Convicted in July at a court-martial of orchestrating the largest leak of classified documents ever, a U.S. Army soldier is now seeking a presidential pardon.
Bradley Manning, 25, who is now living as a woman and known as Chelsea Manning, asked for the pardon in a letter sent Tuesday by attorney David Coombs to President Barack Obama, Reuters reports.
“I urge you to consider this matter closely and to take a positive step towards protecting whistleblowers who release information to the media for the public good by either reducing Private Manning’s sentence to time served, or by granting him a full pardon,” Coombs wrote.
The letter, which is also addressed to Army Secretary John McHugh, is posted on a Pardon Private Manning page on his website.
Manning’s pardon application includes a supporting statement from Amnesty International.
Manning is serving a 35-year prison term for providing some 700,000 confidential military documents to WikiLeaks.
