The Washington Times: President Obama on Tuesday commuted the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the transgender Army intelligence analyst convicted of leaking military secrets in 2010.
The relief for Manning was one of 273 clemency grants by the president in his final week in office — 209 commutations and 64 pardons.
Under the terms of Mr. Obama’s action, Manning will be freed from prison on May 17, rather than serving her sentence until 2045.
Attorneys for Manning, who has tried to commit suicide twice in prison, had argued that she was unfairly being held in the male military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Mr. Obama also ordered the release of Puerto Rican independence activist Oscar López Rivera, who has been imprisoned for about 35 years on his conviction for seditious conspiracy — conspiring to oppose U.S. authority over Puerto Rico by force. Rivera, 73, was to have remained in prison until 2023.
The president’s grants bring his total number of commutations to 1,385 — the most issued by any president in history and more than the previous 11 presidents combined. Of those, 504 individuals were serving life sentences for drug crimes.
