Chelsea Manning Petitions for Time Served

Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. Army private, is petitioning President Obama to have her 35-year sentence reduced and given time served for the six years she has been imprisoned.

Manning is serving a sentence for giving WikiLeaks access to confidential government information in 2010. In a statement from her lawyer provided to The New York Times, Manning said she accepted "full and complete responsibility" for her "wrong" actions.

"I am not asking for a pardon of my conviction," Manning wrote in the statement. "I understand that the various collateral consequences of the court-martial conviction will stay on my record forever. The sole relief I am asking for is to be released from military prison after serving six years of confinement as a person who did not intend to harm the interests of the United States or harm any service members."

Manning also expressed discontent about the adversities she has faced since returning from Iraq and in serving her time in prison in America. She described how difficult it was coming to terms with her gender identity while deployed abroad, the mistreatement she's faced in prison and her multiple suicide attempts.

Manning's petition was endorsed with letters from Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War; Morris Davis, a former military commissions chief prosecutor; and Glenn Greenwald, the out journalist who has spoken out in support of Manning.