Manning gets 35 years in prison for massive leak of US secrets

           

A judge sentenced Bradley Manning to 35 years in a military prison for giving secrets to WikiLeaks. NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski reports.

 Bradley Manning, the soldier who leaked hundreds of thousands of secret government documents, was sentenced by a military judge Wednesday to 35 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge.

The sentence was imposed by Army Col. Denise Lind in a courtroom here. Manning will be eligible for parole and could be out in a little more than a decade.

Lind ordered Manning be given a reduction in rank, and that he forfeit all military pay and benefits.

The judge had already ordered that the three and a half years Manning has spent in custody be applied to his sentence. That credit and good behavior could cut Manning’s prison time dramatically.

Manning, 25, a former Army intelligence analyst, has said he was disillusioned by an American foreign policy bent on “killing and capturing people” when he released the documents, including battlefield reports and diplomatic cables, to the anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks in 2010.

Manning had no visible reaction to the decision, and there were no audible outbursts by the 45 members of the public inside the court. After the judge left the courtroom, guards quickly ushered Manning out of the courtroom as a handful of supporters began yelling.

They yelled, “You’re our hero!” and “We’ll keep fighting for you, Bradley!”

In Wales, Susan Manning, Bradley Manning’s mother, cried out and ran from the room when she heard the sentence, according to NBC News correspondent Keir Simmons, who was with the family. Manning’s uncle Kevin Fox called him a hero.

His case will go for an automatic appeal in the next six months. An organization of Manning’s supporters also issued a public call for a presidential pardon and called the sentence an outrage that “seeks to instill a chilling effect on those who’d dare to expose the United States’ illegality.”

In closing arguments in the sentencing phase of the court-martial, military prosecutors had argued that Manning should get 60 years in prison, citing the value of deterring similar leaks in the future.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

U.S. soldier Bradley Manning is escorted into court to receive his sentence Wednesday at Fort Meade, Md.

“He betrayed the United States,” said Capt. Joe Morrow, a military prosecutor.

Manning’s lawyers had argued that the judge should not “rob him of his youth,” and that, while he might have been geeky and naïve, he was caring and compassionate and capable of redemption.

Military prosecutors said Manning was not a whistle-blower but a traitor. They said Manning knew that enemies of the United States use WikiLeaks as a resource, and they said some of the documents he released wound up in the hands of al Qaeda.

Manning has been jailed at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., since April 2011 and was at the military prison in Quantico, Va., for nine months before that.

He will get credit for 1,294 days already served, or roughly three and a half years. The credit includes 112 days that Lind granted him for mistreatment during his detention at the military brig at Quantico.

Manning was convicted in July of 20 specifications, the equivalent of criminal counts in a civilian court, including seven that dealt with espionage and others that dealt with theft.

The judge, not a jury, determined the verdict. Manning was acquitted of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy, which could have landed him in prison for life.

After the verdict, Manning was facing as much as 136 years in prison, but Lind ruled Aug. 6 that several specifications were redundant for purposes of sentencing, reducing his maximum sentence to 90 years.

Manning pleaded guilty in February to 10 lesser specifications, but prosecutors pressed on with the more serious charges.

Earlier this month, Manning apologized in court for his actions and said he was sorry for hurting the United States.

“When I made these decisions I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people. The last few years have been a learning experience,” he said.

Army medical officials who treated him in Iraq also testified that he had a troubled childhood, struggled mightily with gender confusion, and was seen during basic training for “tantrum fits of rage” that grew worse with stress.

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has said Manning’s conviction is a violation of the First Amendment. He has called Manning a hero and the greatest journalistic source the world has known, saying he uncovered war crimes in Iraq.

Among Manning’s other defenders is Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1971 leaked what become known as the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times. Those papers showed that the government systematically misled the public about U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

This story was originally published on Wed Aug 21, 2013 10:22 AM EDT