Prominent whistleblower Chelsea Manning had her sentence commuted by President Obama on Tuesday, January 17, 2017.

As President Obama’s term in office neared its end, according to biography.com, 117,000 people signed a petition pleading for a commute for Manning. Obama commuted her sentence – meaning that he shortened it – just three days before his last day in office. This is different than a pardon in that Manning is not forgiven for her crime, she is just released early, according to slate.com. Obama moved her release date to May 17, 2017, making Manning’s sentence shortened from 35 to seven years.

Manning was found guilty of espionage and theft on July 30, 2013, after leaking secret files to WikiLeaks, according to biography.com. In August of that year, she was she was sentenced to 35 years in jail which was later commuted by the President.

Chelsea Manning, born as Bradley Manning on December 17, 1987, is transgender. After a chaotic childhood being bullied in high school for being gay, according to dailydot.com, Manning joined the Army in 2007 where she claims she was severely bullied again.

While working at Forward Operating Base Hammer in 2009, a base in Iraq near the Iranian border, Manning was shown classified files. One of these videos showed unarmed civilians under fire and being killed. She began to collect more classified files such as assessments of Guantanamo prisoners and war logs regarding Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, says biography.com.

Then, in February of 2010, while on leave in Rockville, Maryland, Manning  leaked many of these classified documents to WikiLeaks. The worldwide publisher of classified documents and media published some of these documents to the public, says biography.com. When Manning returned to Iraq, she suffered behavioral issues, resulting in an attack on an officer. She was degraded then told that she would be discharged.

After being discharged, Manning reached out to a man named Adrian Lamo online and told him about the files she had leaked. Lamo sent the information they discussed to the Department of Defense, leading to Manning’s arrest in May of 2010.

Manning was incarcerated in Kuwait. There, she became suicidal. Over time, she was moved to multiple other prisons around the United States. Manning tried to commit suicide in July 2014 and then was put in solitary confinement where she made a second suicide attempt on her first night there. Also, Manning was being rejected correct healthcare, according to commondreams. When word of her solitary confinement conditions spread, people began to speak out for Manning, resulting in her being moved to better conditions.

In February of 2013, she pleaded guilty to having and giving out military information; however, she defended that her actions had not been meant to hurt the United States and only intended for them to create debate, says The New York Times. She was found guilty on 20 counts but wasn’t found guilty of her largest offense, aiding the enemy. Following her conviction, Manning was dishonorably discharged from the Army, reduced in rank, and had to give up all her military pay, according to biography.com.

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison, the longest sentence ever given to a leak convict in the U.S., according to The New York Times. However, the topic was debateable as to whether Manning had actually endangered the country or if she was just a whistle blower with too harsh of a punishment.

The day after her sentence, she came out about being transgender on the Today Show.

Manning said, “As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way that I feel and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible.”

In April of 2014, she was granted legal recognition of being a female. In response to that, the U.S. Army made hormone therapy available to her although she did have to follow certain appearance restrictions, such as keeping her hair a certain length.

A month later, Manning’s attorneys fought back about her long sentence, saying that, “No whistleblower in American history has been sentenced this harshly.”

On January 17th President Obama commuted Manning’s sentence to end on May 17th, shortening it from 35 to seven years.