On Tuesday, the Obama administration announced it would commute the sentence of former Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for illegally obtaining and sharing classified information with Wikileaks.

Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow Cully Stimson released the following statement regarding the news of Manning’s commutation:

“Although President Obama has the constitutional authority to commute Manning’s sentence, it sends a horrible message to the troops. Manning was sentenced to only 35 years in prison for stealing classified information and disseminating it to Wikileaks. The possible maximum sentence was 136 years. By commuting Manning’s sentence, President Obama sends the worst possible message to military members: stealing classified information, enabling the enemy to access it, and endangering American and allied service members, is not a serious crime.”

The facts of the case are undisputed. Manning pleaded guilty to downloading 400,000 Iraq war logs; 91,000 Afghan war logs; 250,000 diplomatic cables, including videos of U.S. air strikes and Guantanamo detainee files, all illegally, and sharing them with Wikileaks, which published them.