Pence slams Manning commutation

Vice President-elect Mike Pence sharply criticized President Barack Obama’s decision to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence for leaking classified documents on Wednesday.

“To commute Private Manning’s sentence was a mistake. Private Manning is a traitor and should not have been turned into a martyr, as Senator Cotton said,” Pence told Fox News’ Bret Baier, referencing a statement from Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, also criticized the pardon. “Private Manning’s actions compromised our national security, endangered American personnel downrange, compromised individuals in Afghanistan who were cooperating with our forces by leaking 750,000 documents to WikiLeaks.”

“I disagree very strongly with the president’s decision to commute Private Manning’s sentence. We have to be so serious on the subject of protecting our nation’s secrets, and so we’ll register strong disagreement with that,” Pence added.

When pressed on a possible prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has said he might come to the United States, Pence said the U.S. would “bring to bear the law on his actions and hold him accountable.”

But he did note that documents leaked by WikiLeaks during the election — and allegedly provided to the organization by Russian hackers — were “useful to many Americans.”

Transition spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters earlier Wednesday that Trump is “troubled” by Obama’s decision to commute Manning’s sentence. Manning, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison, will be released in May having served almost seven years.