U.S. soldier Manning says he is female, wants to live as a woman

Aug 22 (Reuters) - U.S. soldier Bradley Manning, sentenced for leaking classified U.S. documents, said he is female and wants to live as a woman named Chelsea.

A statement from Manning was read on NBC News' "Today" program on Thursday.

Manning, 25, was sentenced on Wednesday to 35 years in a military prison for turning over classified files to WikiLeaks in the biggest breach of secret data in the nation's history.

His lawyer, David Coombs, also told NBC said he expects Manning to get pardoned.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey)

 Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/22/usa-wikileaks-manning-idUSL2N0GN0BY20130822