What happened to Chelsea Manning?

Chelsea Manning made worldwide headlines as a whistleblower when she was convicted by court-martial of violating the Espionage Act. Manning had disclosed almost a quarter of a million classified or “unclassified but sensitive” military and diplomatic documents to Julian Assange’s non-profit media organization, WikiLeaks.

Manning was deployed to a United States Army unit in Iraq as an intelligence analyst in 2009. As a result, she had access to classified databases. It was in early 2010 that she leaked classified information and confided in Adrian Lamo, an online acquaintance, after doing so. Manning was arrested in May 2010 after Lamo indirectly informed the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command of her actions.

In total, she was charged with 22 offenses. The offenses included aiding the enemy, a severe charge that could have resulted in a death sentence.

The then-United States President Barack Obama granted her executive clemency and commuted her sentence, meaning she spent around seven years in jail from 2010 until 2017. During her time imprisoned, she underwent a gender transition from male to female but spent her entire sentence in an all-male facility.

Since her release from jail, Manning has told CNN that she leaked the information because of what she saw in Iraq. She said what the general public was being told about what was happening there was very different from the truth — namely, that the American soldiers stationed in the Middle Eastern country didn’t care about the Iraqi people they were supposed to be protecting.

Where is Chelsea Manning now?

Chelsea Manning has been busy since leaving prison. In 2018, in her home state of Maryland, she went head-to-head with incumbent Senator Ben Cardin for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate election. Cardin won renomination with a massive majority of 79.2%. Manning received just 6.1% of the vote.

In 2021, Forbes reported Manning had been contracted to conduct an information security audit with the Swiss-based cryptocurrency startup NYM Technologies SA (basically, she was employed as a hacker). The company’s founder, Harry Halpin, saw Manning as “someone with a deep technological understanding of how governments and big business seek to spy on private messages.”

Manning has also written her memoir, ReadMe.txt. On June 23, 2022, she announced on X (formerly Twitter) that it would be released on October 18, 2022. It’s available from all good bookstores, including Amazon.

She currently earns a living through speaking engagements — many related to transgender activism — and has spoken at events organized by the Rhodes Trust, the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, and Harvard Kennedy School.

In 2022, Manning also made headlines for her love life. It was reported that she had entered a relationship with singer-songwriter Grimes following the Canadian star’s split from billionaire businessman and investor Elon Musk. However, their relationship is long over now, as Grimes announced on Instagram in March 2024 that she was in a relationship with American DJ Matteo Milleri, also known as Anyma.

We wish Manning all the best in her professional and personal life in the future.