Chelsea Manning was in jail for several years for leaking classified U.S. military information to WikiLeaks before her release in 2017. Manning, who is a transgender and an ex-intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, was behind Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks releases.
In 2010 and 2011, WikiLeaks, a whistleblower media organization, leaked thousands of U.S. military’s classified information and diplomatic cable files. These leaks disclosed critical issues about the country’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, such as human rights violations and civilian deaths. Officials claimed this threatened their national security and endangered the lives of their personnel.
U.S. authorities sought the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who was going through a European investigation at the time. Meanwhile, Chelsea Manning, who formerly went by the name Bradley Manning, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the leaks and went to jail. She received a 35-year prison sentence. Manning served her sentence in the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, until 2017.
How long was Chelsea Manning in jail?
Chelsea Manning was in jail for seven years on charges stemming from the WikiLeaks releases. According to CNBC TV 18, the U.S. Justice Department filed a report against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning. The report stated that the duo unlawfully conspired “to receive and obtain documents, writings, and notes connected with the national defense, including such materials classified up to the SECRET level.”
The Guardian stated that Manning faced 22 charges, of which she pleaded guilty to ten. She later stood trial on seven of the remaining counts, six of which were related to espionage. A military tribunal convicted her in 2013. Following the guilty verdict, Chelsea Manning received a prison sentence of 35 years. She avoided life imprisonment after the judge rejected the Government’s treason count.
Then, in 2017, Chelsea Manning was in jail when then-President Barack Obama commuted her lengthy prison sentence before his term ended. At the time, Obama also released a statement, “I feel very comfortable that justice has been served and that a message has still been sent that when it comes to our national security.”
Since her release, Manning has been vocal about her imprisonment, reported ABC News. The former inmate published a memoir in 2022 titled README.txt, in which she revealed spending a year in solitary confinement. In January 2024, Manning, now an anti-secrecy activist and whistleblower, spoke out at Poetry Project’s 50th Annual New Year’s Day Marathon in New York City. Additionally, she reflected on the power of “silence,” “self-reflection,” and “introspection.”
In a previous 2017 interview after her jail release, Chelsea Manning touched upon her motive behind the WikiLeaks saga. During the ABC News interview, she admitted to having leaked the documents so people would question the military’s role and U.S. foreign policy. The ex-intelligence officer claimed she did not intend to cause a national security threat to the country.
According to The New York Times, during her court-martial trial, Chelsea Manning had confessed to releasing classified files. She also alleged that she interacted online with someone, presumably WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Moreover, she admitted that she did not work for the whistleblower organization but merely acted on principle.
Testimony during the trial proved that Manning faced personal problems when she released the documents to WikiLeaks. Then reffered to as Pfc. Bradley Manning, her mental and emotional health was reportedly deteriorating at the time. Additionally, Manning struggled with gender dysphoria in the stress-filled environment and grappled with isolation during her Iraq war deployment.
A popular documentary, XY Chelsea, also revisits the case against Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks.
