A tearful Chelsea Manning thanked former President Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaObama warns of a 'decade of unfair, partisan gerrymandering' in call to look at down-ballot races Quinnipiac polls show Trump leading Biden in Texas, deadlocked race in Ohio Poll: Trump opens up 6-point lead over Biden in Iowa MORE for granting her clemency in the final days of his presidency, saying that in doing so he gave her "a chance" to move on with her life.

"I was given a chance, that's all I wanted," Manning told ABC's Juju Chang in an interview. "That's all I asked for was a chance. That's it."

Manning has not spoken with Obama since he announced in January that he would commute her prison sentence. She had been sentenced to 35 years in a military prison for leaking classified government documents to WikiLeaks.

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Manning was released from prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, last month after serving seven years of her sentence.

Manning was first jailed in 2010, but was convicted in 2013 on charges of leaking the largest trove of military and government documents in U.S. history. She was also charged with aiding the enemy, though she was eventually acquitted on that count.

Manning revealed through her attorney in 2013 that she is a transgender woman and requested hormone therapy treatment, which was initially denied by the military. She tried twice to commit suicide in prison and was placed in solitary confinement.

In her interview with Chang, Manning said that she had no intention of putting U.S. national security at risk when she leaked the information, but that she had hoped to spark a debate about U.S. operations.

"You're getting all this information, and it's just death, destruction, mayhem," she said. "And eventually you just stop — I stopped seeing just statistics and information, and I started seeing people.

"Counterinsurgency warfare is not a simple thing. It's not as simple as good guys versus bad guys. It's a mess."