After six years behind bars, she was released from Fort Leavenworth prison on 17 May when, in one of his final acts as US president, Barack Obama commuted her sentence, saying “justice has been served.” Manning has been living in New York since her release. Chelsea Manning shares first photo after prison Read more 
 
 The 29-year-old was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 after one of the most high-profile intelligence leaks in modern times. She came out as transgender one day after the sentencing, and publicly came out to NBC's "Today." He didn’t identify a specific wrong and expose it responsibly while taking care to minimize the harm of disclosure. If Bradley Manning had stayed Bradley Manning, would he be basking in celebrity, enjoying fawning photo shoots?
– If you've ever wanted to know the effect that liberation has on a person, Chelsea Manning is glad to show you. ABC News reports that the transgender soldier released from prison earlier this year posted a photo Thursday to her social media accounts that shows her smiling at the beach in a red one-piece swimsuit, with the caption, "Guess this is what freedom looks like." The picture was taken by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, who documented Manning for an article appearing in the September issue of Vogue. In that interview, Manning talks about how she's adjusting to being out of jail, her regrets that she didn't come out as transgender earlier in her life, and her future plans, which may or may not include running for political office. "My goal is to use these next six months to figure out where I want to go," she notes. Online reaction to the Vogue coverage has been mixed, CBS News notes, with some offering support and others blasting the magazine for highlighting both a transgender woman and someone who many believe should still be behind bars. "This ugly whatever should be in prison, forever," one non-fan tweeted, to which Manning replied, "And here I am," accompanied by her trademark slew of positive emojis. The conservative National Review also weighed in, with a column by David French that asks: "If Bradley Manning had stayed Bradley Manning, would he be basking in celebrity, enjoying fawning photo shoots?" The Guardian notes that Manning's appearance in Vogue isn't the magazine's first transgender presence: Models Hari Nef and Andreja Pejic have both appeared in its pages, and model Valentina Sampaio has graced the cover of the publication's French version.