Chelsea Manning files to run for US Senate seat in Maryland

Chelsea Manning, 29, was released in January, 28 years early from a 35-year prison sentence for publishing illegally more than 700,000 classified government documents on WikiLeaks. (AP)

Chelsea Manning, a transgender former Army intelligence analyst convicted of leaking classified documents, has filed to run for the U.S. Senate.

The Washington Post first reported Saturday that Manning has filed to run in Maryland for the seat of Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin.

The Federal Election Commission website shows a Jan. 11 filing for “Chelsea Manning for U.S. Senate” with the party affiliation registered as Democrat -- suggesting a primary challenge for Cardin.

Manning, then known as Bradley Manning, was arrested in 2010 and convicted in 2013 of leaking a trove of sensitive documents to WikiLeaks. Manning’s sentence was controversially commuted by President Barack Obama in 2017 after Manning had served seven years of a 35-year sentence.

Since leaving prison, Manning has become known for controversial tweets, often accompanied with a series of emojis and the hashtag #WeGotThis. Last week, Manning tweeted out the message “f---k the police” on Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, along with the hashtag #DisarmThePolice

Manning has also referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as “literally the new gestapo.”