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Did Obama unfairly influence outcome of Bradley Manning’s trial?

Meanwhile in other Wikileaks news, supporters of Bradley Manning have questioned if President Barack Obama’s comments that Bradley Manning “broke the law” will make it hard for Manning to get a “fair trial.”

As NBC News explained, “command influence” is when a military judge or jury could be swayed by a higher-up’s comments or actions. Since Obama is the commander in chief, Manning’s “supporters claim the president’s statement amounts to ‘unlawful command influence.'”

The Bradley Manning Support Network issued an April 25 press release, which included video of Obama’s comments, and questioned the command influence issue.  A White House spokesperson reportedly stated to Politico that Obama was “emphasizing that, in general, the unauthorized release of classified information is not a lawful act” and that Obama wasn’t commenting on Manning’s “guilt or innocence.”