Bradley Manning’s Attorney to Request Pardon from Obama
Published at
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images(HANOVER, Md.) — David Coombs, PFC Bradley Manning’s defense attorney, plans on submitting a request to the Secretary of the Army next week asking for President Obama to pardon Manning or at least commute his sentence to the time he has already served.
Manning, the Army private convicted of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the website WikiLeaks, was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison Wednesday.
Manning, 25, a former Army intelligence analyst, was convicted July 30.
He was found guilty of 20 of the 22 charges he faced, mostly for espionage, theft and fraud. But a judge found him not guilty of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy, which carries a life sentence.
“The time to end Brad’s suffering is now,” Coombs said a news conference in Hanover, Md. “The time for the president to focus on protecting whistleblowers instead of punishing them is now. The time for the president to pardon PFC Manning is now.”
Coombs read a statement from Manning that will be included in the request to the president.
“I understand that my actions violate the law…it was never my intent to hurt anyone. I only wanted to help people. When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and a sense of duty for others,” Manning said in the statement read by Coombs.
According to the statement read by Coombs, Manning said if he is denied a pardon, “I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a high price to live in a free society.”
Coombs also read a statement from Manning’s family that expressed their disappointment in the sentence.
“We are saddened and disappointed in today’s sentence. We continue to believe that Brad’s intentions were good and that he believed he was acting in the best interest of this country,” the family said in the statement read by Coombs. “Please know that his fight is not over.”
After he was sentenced, Manning gathered in a room with Coombs and others who shed tears over the decision, and Coombs said Manning immediately turned to comforting them.
“After he was sentenced, we went back into the room. Myself and others were in tears because this means a lot to us and so you get this guy and he looks to me and he says, ‘It’s ok. It’s alright. Don’t worry about it. I know you did your best. It’s going to be ok. I’m going to be ok. I’m going to get through this,’” Coombs explained. “I’m in a position where my client is cheering me on and that shouldn’t happen. I should be as the attorney cheering him up.”
Coombs said that he will appeal to a convening authority for a reduction in the sentence and will represent Manning in parole and clemency issues, but he will not lead Manning’s appeals process because he thinks Manning will be better served by someone other than the trial attorney.
Coombs said that Manning will be eligible for parole in seven years. If he is denied parole the first time, he will be reviewed each year thereafter. Coombs explained individuals sentenced to more than 30 years are eligible for parole after 10 years. Since Manning has already served three years, he would be eligible for parole in seven.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio