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| Obama commutes Chelsea Manning sentence | Obama commutes Chelsea Manning sentence |
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| President Barack Obama has commuted Chelsea Manning's sentence for leaking documents to Wikileaks in 2010. | President Barack Obama has commuted Chelsea Manning's sentence for leaking documents to Wikileaks in 2010. |
| The 29-year-old transgender US Army private, born Bradley Manning, will be freed on 17 May instead of her scheduled 2045 release. | The 29-year-old transgender US Army private, born Bradley Manning, will be freed on 17 May instead of her scheduled 2045 release. |
| She was sentenced to 35 years in 2013 for her role in leaking diplomatic cables to the anti-secrecy group. | She was sentenced to 35 years in 2013 for her role in leaking diplomatic cables to the anti-secrecy group. |
| The leak was one of the largest breaches of classified material in US history. | The leak was one of the largest breaches of classified material in US history. |
| The Obama administration has been under pressure to release Manning, who twice attempted suicide last year at the male military prison where she is being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. | |
| She also went on a hunger strike last year, which ended after the military agreed to provide her with gender dysphoria treatment. | She also went on a hunger strike last year, which ended after the military agreed to provide her with gender dysphoria treatment. |
| The White House suggested in recent days it was open to commuting Manning's sentence. | |
| It contrasted her situation with Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked surveillance documents and is now living as a fugitive in Russia. | |
| Wikileaks, which declared the news a victory on Twitter, has previously said its founder Julian Assange would surrender to US authorities if Mr Obama pardoned Manning. | |
| In one of his final acts as president, Mr Obama granted commutation of sentence to 209 individuals and pardons to 64 others. | |
| Mr Obama has commuted 1,385 sentences, more than the total granted by the past 12 presidents combined. | |
| Among those pardoned on Tuesday were retired General James Cartwright, who was convicted of making false statements during an investigation into disclosure of classified information. | |
| Cartwright was questioned by the FBI in 2012 over a New York Times reporter's expose on a malicious computer program known as Stuxnet that was designed to disrupt Iran's nuclear programme. | |
| What was in the leaked cables? | |
| The US Army charged Manning with 22 counts relating to the unauthorised possession and distribution of more than 700,000 secret diplomatic and military documents and video. | |
| Included in those files was video footage of an Apache helicopter killing 12 civilians in Baghdad in 2007. | |
| Manning also passed on sensitive messages between US diplomats, intelligence assessments of Guantanamo detainees being held without trial and military records from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. | |
| The disclosures were considered an embarrassment to the US, prompting the Obama administration to crack down on government leaks. | |
| At a sentencing hearing, Manning apologised for "hurting the US" and said she had mistakenly thought she could "change the world for the better". |