Chelsea Manning is out of jail after almost a year

Enlarge / Manning in 2019, when she was briefly free between two grand jury terms. (credit: ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images)

Virginia federal judge Anthony Trenga ordered the release of Chelsea Manning on Thursday after almost a year of confinement. The judge was holding Manning in contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury about matters related to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. But now that the grand jury has wrapped up its work, there's no longer a legal basis to hold Manning.

In 2010, Manning was an army private with access to some of the US military's classified networks. Concerned about the conduct of America's wars in the Middle East, Manning leaked a vast trove of classified military documents to Wikileaks, hoping to spark a national debate.

But the US government quickly identified Manning and tried her before a military court. In 2013, she was sentenced to 35 years in prison. But just before leaving office in 2017, President Obama commuted Manning's sentence, allowing her to go free years early.

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