Obama defends decision to commute Chelsea Manning's sentence

President Barack Obama waves as he speaks during his farewell address at McCormick Place in Chicago, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama waves as he speaks during his farewell address at McCormick Place in Chicago, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama defended his decision to cut nearly three decades off convicted leaker Chelsea Manning's prison term Wednesday, arguing in his final White House news conference that the former Army intelligence analyst had served a "tough prison sentence" already.

Taking questions on many topics two days before his presidency ends, Obama also warned that the "moment may be passing" for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, pushing back on criticism over his recent move to put pressure on the Jewish state over settlement-building. Turning his attention to President-elect Donald Trump, Obama said he reserves the right to speak out as ex-president if Trump violates America's "core values."

Obama said he granted clemency to Manning because she had gone to trial, taken responsibility for her crime and received a sentence that was harsher than other leakers had received. He emphasized that he had merely commuted her sentence, not granted a pardon, which would have symbolically forgiven her for the crime.

"I feel very comfortable that justice has been served," Obama said.

Manning was convicted in 2013 of violating the Espionage Act and other crimes for leaking more than 700,000 classified documents while working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad. Formerly known as Bradley Manning, she declared as transgender after being sentenced to 35 years in prison. She had served more than six years before Obama commuted her sentence Tuesday, with a release date set for May.

"The notion that the average person who was thinking about disclosing vital, classified information would think that it goes unpunished, I don't think would get that impression from the sentence that Chelsea Manning has served," Obama said.

Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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