By Andrew Griffin, Independent:
Julian Assange has claimed that Barack Obama only granted clemency to Chelsea Manning to “make life hard for him”.
One of Mr Obama’s last acts as president was to commute Ms Manning’s sentence, allowing her to be released in a matter of months rather than decades. The act was widely seen as a gesture of goodwill on the basis that Ms Manning was jailed for being a whistleblower.
But now Mr Assange has claimed that Mr Obama actually made the decision in spite of him. That was in reference to WikiLeaks’ promise that if Ms Manning were granted clemency then Mr Assange would hand himself in to be extradited to the US – a claim that he initially appeared to be sticking by, then changed his mind on and then committed to again so long as he can come to an agreement with the Department of Justice.
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