President Obama granted 209 commutations and 64 pardons on Tuesday as one of his final acts as president. This is a presidential tradition, and included some noteworthy names.
The big ones:
- Chelsea Manning, who leaked classified information in the first big WikiLeaks dump. Manning's sentence was commuted. She'll go free in May.
- Gen. James Cartwright, who talked to a New York Times reporter about cyberattacks on Iran.
- Oscar Lopez, a Puerto Rican tied to a freedom-fighting (or terrorist) group whose bombing attacks targeted New York City and Chicago a few decades ago.
Lopez and Manning, in particular, benefited from elite support. A notable advocate for the release of Lopez was none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda, the playwright behind Hamilton.