Obama commuted the sentence of military whistleblower Chelsea Manning last Tuesday in the final days of his presidency, and Manning is now set to be released in May of this year.

Prior to her commutation, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for releasing a massive trove of secret military documents to WikiLeaks in 2010 while working as an intelligence worker in the army. The trove included documents detailing the abuse of Iraq war detainees and a video of an American helicopter attack in which 2 journalists were killed.

Her commutation comes after a revival in public pressure to pardon her, with a petition for her release garnering 120,000 signatures.

Edward Snowden, another whistleblower who released information on a massive NSA spying program before fleeing to Russia, called for the release of Manning as well, tweeting, “Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency as you exit the White House, please: free Chelsea Manning. You alone can save her life.”

In providing Manning clemency, the Obama administration released this statement: “I feel very comfortable that justice has been served and that a message has still been sent.”

Obama has also received some flak from Republicans for his decision to commute Manning’s sentence, with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) saying, “President Obama now leaves in place a dangerous precedent that those who compromise our national security won’t be held accountable for their crimes.”

Manning’s attorneys, Nancy Hollander and Vince Ward, were very pleased with the decision, saying, “Her 35-year sentence… was always excessive, and we’re delighted that justice is being served in the form of this commutation.”

During Manning’s time in military prison, the army had a tough time dealing with Manning’s transgender identity and had to face lawsuits from her to receive male to female transitional treatment.  Manning also attempted suicide twice during her sentence.

Snowden, although he also sought a pardon, seems unlikely to receive clemency, as he leaked “top secret” information opposed to the lower “secret” classification of the documents Manning released.  Also, while Manning stayed in the U.S. and saw both jail time and a trial after her leak, Snowden fled to Russia without facing trial.