Chelsea Manning has been denied entry to Australia–where the transgender convicted leaker was to begin a speaking tour on Sunday.
Think Inc., the company that had hired Manning to speak, announced that the government had sent them a notice of intention to deny Manning entry into the country.
The denial of Manning’s visa likely stems from being a convicted criminal. As an intelligence analyst with the U.S. Army, Manning partnered with WikiLeaks to steal and leak thousands of classified documents.
Initially sentenced to 35 years in prison, Manning’s sentence was commuted by then-President Barack Obama, just days before leaving office.
Manning served just 7 years.
Manning later launched a 2018 Senate run for Maryland as a Democrat, taking on longtime Democratic Senator Ben Cardin in a primary.
After a series of bizarre behavior, including an apparent suicide attempt that was posted over social media, Manning received just 5.7% of the vote, to Cardin’s 80.4%.
Despite having their speaker denied entry at the last minute, Think Inc. hasn’t given up. They’re now calling on Manning fans from across the country to lobby Australia’s immigration minister, David Coleman, in an effort to change his mind.
