Chelsea Manning, the transgender soldier imprisoned for releasing classified military information, said she hopes to use lessons she's learned in prison to help others when she gets out.
Ahead of her release next week, Manning on Tuesday released her first statement since being granted clemency, expressing gratitude to her supporters and to former President Barack Obama, reported The Associated Press.
Manning served nearly seven years of her 35-year sentence at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, before Obama granted her clemency in the final days of his presidency.
The Oklahoma native was convicted in 2013 of leaking more than 700,000 secret military and State Department documents and battlefield video to WikiLeaks. An intelligence analyst in Iraq, she was formerly known as Bradley Manning.
Her attorneys said she will be released from a military prison on May 17.
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