For those of you who don’t know, Bradley Edward Manning is a former Private First Class in the United States Army who also happened to leak 750,000 classified documents. Eventually, his actions were discovered, and he was sentenced to 35 years in prison on August 31, 2013. In prison, he changed his name from Bradley to Chelsea, and began identifying as a woman.  Fast forwarding a bit, in May of 2016, Chelsea released a 209-page appeal, explaining her actions and reasoning towards the document leak. Fast forward some more, and in January 11th of this year, NBC News releases a report stating that Chelsea is on Barack Obama’s “short list” to have her sentenced commuted out of prison. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, objected to the commutation, as she only served six of the 35 year-sentence.  It is believed that she will be release because of the personal and emotional side of the Manning story: she is transgender, in a male prison, “facing an uncertain fate behind bars.” Her prison sentence is set to expire on May 17.

Personally, I don’t agree with any of the actions that Chelsea did regarding the 750,000 documents. It doesn’t matter what she identifies as, but there shouldn’t be lawful mercy to someone who releases documents, sabotaging the United States Army. She should have all 35 of her years in prison for these actions, and pardoning should not have even been a considerable option for a crime of this caliber.