Chelsea Manning laughed off Donald Trump’s claim she should still be in jail in her first UK public appearance since her release from prison.
Manning – formerly Private Bradley Manning – was jailed for handing over more than 700,000 official files to Wikileaks when she worked as an intelligence analyst in the US Army.
After undergoing gender reassignment treatment, she was released six years into a 35-year jail term when Barack Obama commuted her sentence during his final days in office.
Donald Trump later tweeted: ‘Ungrateful TRAITOR Chelsea Manning, who should never have been released from prison, is now calling President Obama a weak leader. Terrible!’
When asked about the tweet at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in central London today, Manning replied simply: ‘Well I’m here now.’
Chelsea Manning has spoken about leaking government files to Wikileaks in her first public appearance in the UK since she was freed early from a prison term
Manning spoke to artist James Bridle at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London today
Asked about leaking the classified information, she replied: ‘What I was working with wasn’t just database reports, it was human beings living lives. When you tie it all together, realise it’s people, then you can’t do it anymore.’
She added: ‘I saw something that I felt needed to happen and I did something about it.’
When asked if she regretted her actions, she refused to ‘go over everything’, replying: ‘I did what I did because those were the tools I had available to me.’
Manning also spoke over her fears of creeping surveillance in society and the impact of social media.
She said: ‘This timeline, this feed, its chosen for you it’s limited, there’s feedback loops happening. Algorithms push people to content that people get upset with because that creates more content which drives the algorithm to drive more people there.’
Manning was born in Oklahoma, but lived in south Wales as a teenager after her parents divorced. She returned to the US and joined the Army after completing school in the UK.
Her actions divided opinion, with transparency campaigners praising the leaks, while critics insisted she weakened the US.
Manning – then Private Bradley Manning – was jailed for 35 years for leaking US military and diplomatic documents. She was freed early by Barack Obama. Picture from 2012
The case divided opinion, with supporters (pictured) insisting she was a whistleblower, but others, including Donald Trump, branding her a traitor