[4][5][6] 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.

[15] 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[16]—before being transferred to the Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she could interact with other detainees.

[38][45] After completing high school in 2005 at age 17[41][58] and fearing her mother was becoming too ill to cope, Manning returned to the U.S.[59][60] She moved in with her father, then living in Oklahoma City with his second wife and her child.

After graduating in April, she moved to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, to attend Advanced Individual Training (AIT) for Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) 35F, intelligence analyst, receiving a TS/SCI security clearance (Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information).

According to Nicks, this security clearance, combined with the digitization of classified information and the government's policy of sharing it widely, gave Manning access to an unprecedented amount of material.

Nicks writes that Manning was reprimanded while at Fort Huachuca for posting three video messages to friends on YouTube in which she described the inside of the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) where she worked.

[83][84] After four weeks at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) in Fort Polk, Louisiana, Manning was deployed to Forward Operating Base Hammer, near Baghdad, arriving in October 2009.

[118][119][120][121][122][123] Ellen Nakashima writes that, on May 9, Manning contacted Jonathan Odell, a gay American novelist in Minneapolis, via Facebook, leaving a message that she wanted to speak to him in confidence; she said she had been involved in some "very high-profile events, albeit as a nameless individual thus far".

Julian Assange—an Australian Internet activist and journalist, and the de facto editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks—had the idea of creating what Ben Laurie called an "open-source, democratic intelligence agency".

The New York Times wrote in December 2010 that the U.S. government was trying to discover whether Assange had been a passive recipient of material from Manning or had encouraged or helped her to extract the files, in which case he could be charged with conspiracy.

[116] Shortly after the first chat with Manning, Lamo discussed the information with Chet Uber of the volunteer group Project Vigilant, which researches cybercrime, and Timothy Webster, a friend who had worked in Army counterintelligence.

[157] The hacker community largely ostracized him afterward, but Nicks argues that it was thanks to Lamo that the government had months to ameliorate any harm caused by the release of the diplomatic cables.

[176] On March 15, 295 members of the academic legal community signed a statement arguing that Manning was being subjected to "degrading and inhumane pretrial punishment" and criticizing Obama's comments.

[192] On September 3, 2013, Manning's lawyer filed a Petition for Commutation of Sentence to President Obama through the pardon attorney at the Department of Justice and Secretary of the Army John M.

"[205] On January 26, 2017, in her first column for The Guardian since the commutation, Manning lamented that Obama's political opponents consistently refused to compromise, resulting in "very few permanent accomplishments" during his time in office.

[218] On March 8, 2019, Manning was found in contempt of court and jailed in the women's wing of a detention center in Alexandria, Virginia, with the judge conditioning her release on her testifying or the grand jury concluding its work.

[225] She again refused to testify, saying that she "believe[d] this grand jury seeks to undermine the integrity of public discourse with the aim of punishing those who expose any serious, ongoing, and systemic abuses of power by this government".

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said: "I can't think of a time when there was ever a story generated by a news organization where the White House, the Kremlin, Chávez, India, China, everyone in the world was talking about these things.

"[240] United States Navy Admiral Michael Mullen, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the leaks had placed American soldiers and Afghan informants in danger.

[243][244] In 2011, Manning and WikiLeaks were credited in part,[245][246] along with news reporters and political analysts,[247] as catalysts for the Arab Spring that began in December 2010, when waves of protesters rose up against rulers across the Middle East and North Africa, after the leaked cables exposed government corruption.

[273] On August 22, 2013, the day after sentencing, Manning's attorney issued a press release to the Today show announcing that his client was a female, and asked that she be referred to by her new name of Chelsea and feminine pronouns.

[275][276] Advocacy groups such as GLAAD, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) encouraged media outlets to refer to Manning by her self-identified name and pronoun.

[287] In September, Manning filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Washington, D.C., against Secretary of Defense Hagel, claiming she had "been denied access to medically necessary treatment" for gender dysphoria.

[292] In April 2015, Amnesty International posted online a letter from Manning in which she said: I finally began my prescribed regime of hormones to continue my overdue gender transition in February.

[301] On May 22, 2017, Manning's 2014 lawsuit seeking a federal court to order the Defense Department to provide hormone therapy and other treatment for her gender identity condition was dismissed because, her ACLU attorney explained, "she is free".

[301] In a June 9, 2017, appearance on Good Morning America, her first interview following her release, Manning said she "accepted responsibility" for her actions, and thanked former President Obama for giving her "another chance".

"[327] Harvard said Manning would visit for a limited number of events meant to spark campus discussion,[328] and in particular would engage students in discourse on "issues of LGBTQ identity in the military".

"[331] Later that day, CIA director Mike Pompeo advised the university that he supported Morell's decision, and withdrew from his scheduled public appearance that evening at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

"While her case is on appeal," reported The Post, "she is on a technical form of unpaid active duty, putting her political campaign at odds with Department of Defense regulations that prohibit military personnel from seeking public office."

"[350] On January 20, 2018, Manning attended "A Night for Freedom" hosted by far-right social media personality Mike Cernovich at the nightclub FREQ in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan.