In the recent campaign, information hacked from Democratic campaign operatives was provided to WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks published the private communications, damaging the Democratic campaign, even costing her the campaign. The source that leaked the information to WikiLeaks - generally agreed to be Russia or Russian-aligned hackers - has been attacked by President Obama. He expelled Russian diplomats and has ordered an ongoing investigation into the hacking. This is serious business.
In 2010, secret communiques and files were stolen from the US Military. The documents included State Department profiles of Icelandic politicians, airstrike videos, detailed logs of the Iraq and Afghan Wars, diplomatic cables, files related to Guantanamo Bay, and much more. The documents were provided to WikiLeaks, who published the vast trove. It was an intelligence disaster, revealing secrets and harming US standing. The culprit was quickly nabbed. Bradley - now Chelsea - Manning was convicted on 21 charges and sentenced to 35 years in prison. President Obama commuted the majority of Manning's sentence so that he will only serve 7 years, 20% of the original sentence.
What explains the difference in how Obama treats the hackers? Manning's theft and release of information hurt America but Russia's theft and release hurt the Democrats. One is more serious than the other, but not the one you would think.
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