Stuxnet leak source, activists among 273 people Obama commutes and pardons

17 Jan, 2017 23:04 / Updated 8 years ago

With less than 72 hours left in office, President Barack Obama has commuted the sentences for 209 people, including Chelsea Manning, and pardoned 64 people, including retired Gen. James Cartwright.

Cartwright, who pleaded guilty of lying to the FBI about conversations he had with reporters relating to the Stuxnet program, a classified US hacking program that used viruses to attack Iran’s nuclear program starting in 2009. Cartwright was due to be sentenced on Tuesday, but he will receive a pardon before that happens.

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On Tuesday, the Obama administration released a list of pardons that also included baseball legend Willie McCovey, who has been in prison since 1995 for tax evasion, and Oscar Lopez Rivera, who has been in prison since 1981 for being a member of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN) a group that fought for Puerto Rican independence.

To date, President Obama has granted 1,385 commutations, more than any other president in US history, and more than the last 12 presidents combined.