We do not deny his guilt in violating espionage laws, but insist that his service of justice has earned his pardon.
Bradley Manning's primary offense was being in the US department of defense and not the US justice department. Given the nature of the information distributed by Bradley Manning and the corruption and abuse he was exposing within the given system, his actions were entirely defensible in exposing an abuse of authority and a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety. If these gross violations of human rights with respect to the domestic and international community had been addressed through the proper channels and checked and/or balanced by the supposed systems we have in place, Manning would not have been forced to take matters into his own hands.