US President Barack Obama commuted the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, who is serving a 35-year sentence for leaking military secrets.  Originally sentenced to prison until 2045, Manning is now due to leave her cell in May of this year.

"It really is a great act of mercy by President Obama," said Manning's lawyer David Coombs.  "For myself and Chelsea, I'm very thankful he took that option."

In early 2010 and under her previous name Bradley Manning, the US Army Private sent more than 700,000 secret documents to Wikileaks; these included videos of the 12 July 2007 Baghdad airstrike, and the 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan which caused civilian casualties and raised questions about the morality and legality of US conduct in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  Manning also passed on sensitive messages between US diplomats, and intelligence assessments of Guantanamo detainees.  The papers became known as the Iraq War Logs and Afghan War Diary.  These proved to be deeply embarrassing to the US.

After conviction and sentencing, Manning came out as transgender in 2013 and became known as Chelsea.  But she is still being held in a men's military prison.  Obama's last day on the job is Friday, when he hands the presidency over to Donald Trump, whose incoming administration is not expected to look kindly upon either Manning or transgender individuals in the army.  It's not clear if Trump will fight the commutation of Manning's sentence.

President Obama also commuted the sentence of 74-year-old Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Lopez Rivera, who was doing 55 years for sedition.  Lopez Rivera claimed to be responsible for more than 100 bombings at public and commercial buildings during the 1970s and '80s in New York, Chicago, Washington, and other US cities - none of which gained Puerto Rican independence nor inspired an independence movement.