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Bradley Manning’s maximum possible sentence cut to 90 years

Bradley Manning’s maximum possible sentence cut to 90 years

FORT MEADE, Md. — Army Pfc. Bradley Manning’s possible sentence for disclosing classified information through WikiLeaks was trimmed from 136 years to 90 years Tuesday by a military judge who said some of his offenses were closely related.

The ruling was largely a victory for defense attorneys, who had argued for an 80-year maximum. Still, the 25-year-old soldier could spend most, if not all, of his remaining years inside a prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Patrick Semansky, AP
Bradley Manning

The sentencing phase of Manning’s court-martial is in its second week. He was convicted last week of 20 counts, including six Espionage Act violations, five federal theft counts and a federal computer fraud charge for leaking more than 700,000 documents from a classified government computer network while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2010.

Manning says he leaked the material to expose wrongdoing by the military and U.S. diplomats. He contends he selectively leaked material that wouldn’t harm service members or national security.

At his sentencing hearing, prosecutors are presenting evidence that the leaks damaged U.S. interests. They have focused mainly on the impact of more than 250,000 State Department diplomatic cables that WikiLeaks began publishing in November 2010.

Prosecutors also have presented evidence the disclosures damaged America’s military and diplomatic relationships with some foreign governments and endangered the lives of foreign citizens who had confided in diplomats.

At trial, defense attorneys portrayed Manning as a “young, naive but good-intentioned” soldier who was in emotional turmoil, partly because he was a gay service member at a time when homosexuals were barred from serving openly in the U.S. military.

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Also Tuesday, Manning’s father said he still thinks his son is innocent.

Brian Manning, of Oklahoma City, said on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 that he can’t understand how someone could obtain so much classified information and smuggle it out of a supposedly secure workplace without being detected.

Bradley Manning has said he downloaded the material onto his workplace computer, transferred it to CDs and then used his personal computer to send it to WikiLeaks.

A former Navy technician, Brian Manning said it would be wrong to leak classified information that would damage the United States and its military. He said he loves his son but that if he could speak freely with him, “I would basically tell him right off the bat that he had no excuse whatsoever for allegedly releasing that information.”

Brian Manning declined an Associated Press interview request Tuesday night.

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