#MDSen: Chelsea Manning files to run for U.S. Senate in Maryland

justinspoliticalcorner:

Justin Jouvenal at WaPo:

Chelsea Manning, the transgender former Army private who was convicted of passing sensitive government documents to Wikileaks, has filed to run for the U.S. Senate in Maryland, according to federal election filings.

Manning, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, would be challenging Democrat Ben Cardin, who has served two terms in the Senate and is up for re-election in November. Cardin is Maryland’s senior senator and is an overwhelming favorite to win a third term.

Manning, 30, was convicted in 2013 of the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Last year, then President Obama commuted Manning’s sentence to time served and she was released from a military prison in Kansas.

Manning moved to Maryland after her release and friends and family raised more than $175,000 to support her through an online campaign. Since then, she has written for The Guardian and Medium on issues of transparency, free speech and civil liberties, according to her web site.

nuevayor:

She’s doing THAT!!!!

Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence

paxamericana:

WASHINGTON
— President Obama on Tuesday largely commuted the remaining prison
sentence of Chelsea Manning, the army intelligence analyst convicted of
an enormous 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic
activities across the world, disrupted the administration, and made
WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures, famous.

The decision by Mr. Obama rescued Ms. Manning, who twice tried to commit suicide last year, from an uncertain future as a transgender woman incarcerated at the male military prison
at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. She has been jailed for nearly seven years,
and her 35-year sentence was by far the longest punishment ever imposed
in the United States for a leak conviction.

Now,
under the terms of Mr. Obama’s commutation announced by the White House
on Tuesday, Ms. Manning is set to be freed in five months, on May 17 of
this year, rather than in 2045.

Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence