Manning was given a 35-year prison sentence Wednesday by
Army Judge Col. Denise Lind for his role in leaking hundreds of thousands of
classified documents to WikiLeaks. It was a shorter sentence than the 60 years prosecutors
had sought.
{mosads}Manning, who will be imprisoned at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas,
will be eligible for parole in seven years, Coombs said.
The White House declined to comment on the possibility that
Manning could be pardoned.
“There’s a process for pardon applications,” White House spokesman
Josh Earnest said at Wednesday’s press briefing. “I’m not going to get ahead of
that process. If there is an application that’s filed by Mr. Manning or his
attorneys, that application will be considered in that process like any other
application.”
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a statement that the
“only just outcome in Mr. Manning’s case is his unconditional release,
compensation for the unlawful treatment he has undergone, and a serious
commitment to investigating the wrongdoing his alleged disclosures have brought
to light.”