MARYLAND: Chelsea Manning Files US Senate Bid

The Washington Post reports:

Chelsea Manning, the transgender former Army private who was convicted of passing sensitive government documents to Wikileaks, has filed to run for the U.S. Senate in Maryland, according to federal election filings.

Manning, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, would be challenging Democrat Ben Cardin, who has served two terms in the Senate and is up for re-election in November. Cardin is Maryland’s senior senator and is considered an overwhelming favorite to win a third term.

Manning, 30, who is formerly known as Bradley Manning, was convicted in 2013 of the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Last year, then President Obama commuted Manning’s sentence to time served and she was released from a military prison in Kansas.

The New York Daily News reports:



In the final days of his presidency, Barack Obama commuted Manning’s sentence and she was released from the Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas in May 2017 after spending seven years in custody.

President Trump slammed her release on Twitter and described her as an “ungrateful TRAITOR” who “never should have been released from prison.” Manning has since moved to Maryland and has written about civil liberties and free speech for The Guardian and Medium.