WikiLeak
s founder Julian Assange said Thursday that he is willing to return to the United States once Chelsea Manning is released from prison in May.
Assange said last week that he would abandon his exile home in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for the U.S. if President Obama freed Manning, who has been imprisoned for more than six years for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents through the WikiLeaks website.
Obama commuted Manning’s sentence Tuesday. She is set to be released from the Army’s prison at Fort Leavenworth on May 17. Manning, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison, would not have been eligible for parole for another six years.
A lawyer for Assange backpedaled after the White House announcement, saying Assange had called for Manning’s immediate release.