Chelsea Manning Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Chelsea Manning
Manning in 2022
Born	(1987-12-17) December 17, 1987 (age 37) Oklahoma City, U.S.
Known for	Classified document disclosure to WikiLeaks
Political party	Democratic
Criminal charge(s)	Violating the Espionage Act, stealing government property, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, multiple counts of disobeying orders
Criminal penalty	35 years imprisonment (commuted to 7 years total confinement), reduction in rank to private (E-1 or PVT), forfeiture of all pay and allowances, dishonorable discharge

Military career
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	Active duty: 2007–2010 Confinement: 2010–2017
Rank	Private (formerly Specialist)
Unit	2nd BCT, 10th Mountain Division (former)
Awards	National Defense Service Medal Global War on Terrorism Service Medal Army Service Ribbon Overseas Service Ribbon Iraq Campaign Medal

Signature

Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning, December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly 750,000 classified, or unclassified but sensitive, military and diplomatic documents. She was imprisoned from 2010 until 2017 when her sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama. A trans woman, Manning said in 2013 that she had a female gender identity since childhood and wanted to be known as Chelsea Manning.

Assigned in 2009 to an Army unit in Iraq as an intelligence analyst, Manning had access to classified databases. In early 2010, she leaked classified information to WikiLeaks and confided this to Adrian Lamo, an online acquaintance. Lamo indirectly informed the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, and Manning was arrested in May 2010. The material included videos of the July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike and the 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan; 251,287 U.S. diplomatic cables; and 482,832 Army reports that came to be known as the "Iraq War Logs" and "Afghan War Diary". The material was published by WikiLeaks and its media partners between April 2010 and April 2011.

Manning was charged with 22 offenses, including aiding the enemy, which was the most serious charge and could have resulted in a death sentence. She was held at the Marine Corps Brig, Quantico in Virginia, from July 2010 to April 2011, under Prevention of Injury status—which entailed de facto solitary confinement and other restrictions that caused domestic and international concern—before being transferred to the Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she could interact with other detainees. In February 2013 she pleaded guilty to 10 of the charges. The trial on the remaining charges began on June 3, 2013, and on July 30, she was convicted of 17 of the original charges and amended versions of four others, but acquitted of aiding the enemy. She was sentenced to 35 years at the maximum-security U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth. On January 17, 2017, Obama commuted Manning's sentence to nearly seven years of confinement dating from her arrest in May 2010. After release, Manning makes her living through speaking engagements.

In 2018, Manning challenged incumbent Senator Ben Cardin for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate election in her home state of Maryland. She received 6.1% of the vote; Cardin won renomination with 79.2%.

From March 8, 2019, to March 12, 2020, Manning was jailed for contempt and fined $256,000 for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Images for kids

Manning in 2012
Manning in September 2009
Manning (left) in Brooklyn during the coronavirus pandemic
Demonstration in support of Manning, San Francisco, June 2011
Chelsea Manning interviewed at Wired Next Festival 2018 in Milan
Manning performing a DJ set at Knockdown Center for Bushwig 2023.

Chelsea Manning facts for kids

Images for kids

See also