(18 Jan 2017) US President Barack Obama granted clemency to Chelsea Manning on Tuesday, allowing the transgender Army intelligence officer convicted of leaking more than 700,000 US documents to go free nearly three decades early.
Yet Obama did not grant a pardon to another prominent leaker, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, whom the US has been unable to extradite from Russia.
Snowden hasn't formally applied for clemency, though his supporters have called for it.
Yet the White House drew a distinction between the unapologetic Snowden and Manning, whom officials noted has expressed remorse and served several years already for her crime.
Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, took secret documents and leaked them, revealing massive post-9/11 domestic surveillance programmes in the US government.
He fled to Hong Kong, then Russia, to avoid prosecution
Russia's decision to shelter Snowden in 2013 badly strained Russia-US ties.
Obama pardoned 64 individuals including retired Gen. James Cartwright, charged with making false statements during another leak probe.
Manning was one of 209 inmates with sentences commuted by Obama, who has now granted more commutations than any other president in history.
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