Jane Onyanga-Omara, and Tom Vanden Brook

USA TODAY

Pvt. Chelsea Manning was released from Fort Leavenworth military prison Wednesday after serving seven years of a 35-year sentence for leaking thousands of diplomatic cables and other secret documents to WikiLeaks.

The transgender soldier, 29, who entered prison as a man named Bradley Manning, will remain an active-duty, unpaid soldier, eligible for health care and other benefits while her court-martial conviction remains under appeal, said Dave Foster, an Army spokesman. She will also have access to commissaries and military exchanges, but will not be paid.

"After another anxious four months of waiting, the day has finally arrived," Manning said in a statement after her release. "I am looking forward to so much! Whatever is ahead of me is far more important than the past. I’m figuring things out right now – which is exciting, awkward, fun, and all new for me."

She also tweeted "First Steps of Freedom!!" above a photo showing tennis shoe-clad feet — presumably hers — taking a step on a wood floor.

Nancy Hollander and Vincent Ward, Manning's clemency and appellate lawyers, said in a joint statement that she "has expressed her deep appreciation to her supporters and looks forward to the future."

Cynthia Smith, an Army spokesperson, confirmed Manning left Fort Leavenworth's United States Disciplinary Barracks but declined to provide additional information because of privacy act restrictions.

Manning was convicted of leaking more than 700,000 classified documents, including battlefield reports on Iraq and Afghanistan and State Department cables, while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq. Manning said the leaks were intended to expose wrongdoing.

The soldier was arrested outside a U.S. Army base in Iraq in May 2010. Her 2013 sentence was commuted in the final days of the Obama administration, a move that infuriated some in the military as well as President Trump. She would have been eligible for parole in six years.

Chase Strangio, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said that despite solitary confinement and four years of confinement, Manning "has emerged with grace, resilience, and an inspiring amount of love for others."

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The Pulse Films production company announced at the Cannes Film Festival in France that Manning would be filmed for a documentary upon her release Wednesday.

Manning’s mother Susan Manning told the Guardian that it will be very hard for Manning to adjust after four years in prison, but that she will be staying in Maryland where she has family to look out for her.

"Chelsea is so intelligent and talented, I hope she now has the chance to go to college to complete her studies, and to do and be whatever she wants," Susan Manning told the newspaper. "My message to Chelsea? Two words: ‘Go, girl!’”

Courage Foundation, an international organization that supports people who place themselves at risk to contribute to historical records, Reporters Without Borders Germany and the German-based nonprofit Wau Holland Foundation, which says it supports moral courage in the digital realm, started a fundraising campaign Wednesday to help Manning pay for her legal appeal.