Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst behind one of the largest leaks of classified information in history, was released from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas Wednesday morning.
“She has experienced trauma over the past seven years of her confinement and the trauma from those experiences won’t just evaporate the day she walks out of prison,” said American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Chase Strangio, who represented Manning.
“It’s going be a process for her to heal and begin to live her free life with more autonomy over her gender and her decisions and vision for the future.”
“After another anxious four months of waiting, the day has finally arrived. I am looking forward to so much! Whatever is ahead of me is far more important than the past. I’m figuring things out right now — which is exciting, awkward, fun, and all new for me,” Manning said in a statement after her release.
Manning was sentenced Aug. 21, 2013 to 35 years in prison. Jan. 17, President Obama commuted all but four months of Manning’s remaining sentence.
In a written statement before her release Manning said, “For the first time, I can see a future for myself as Chelsea. I can imagine surviving and living as the person who I am and can finally be in the outside world. Freedom used to be something that I dreamed of but never allowed myself to fully imagine. Now, freedom is something that I will again experience with friends and loved ones after nearly seven years of bars and cement, of periods of solitary confinement, and of my health care and autonomy restricted, including through routinely forced haircuts. I am forever grateful to the people who kept me alive, President Obama, my legal team and countless supporters.”
