In January 2017, after being locked up at five different facilities, in  conditions a United Nations expert called “cruel” and “inhumane,”  Manning had received a surprise commutation by President Barack Obama. Four months later, she was free, trying to adjust to life in a world she helped shape. Finishing her coffee, she fished her iPhone out of her purse and asked her security guard for a lift back to the apartment where she was staying while in Manhattan.