Obama has been one of the more liberal presidents in recent years, which creates a sort of cognitive dissonance with his administration's poor track record with whistleblowers— originally critical of things like the Patriot Act, he later supported more government surveillance and has arrested eight people under the Espionage Act of 1917, more than double the amount under all previous presidents combined.

However, now that his administration's coming to an end, he's considering an important move—pardoning WikiLeaks collaborator Chelsea Manning.

Manning, a transwoman, released classified material that exposed inappropriate behavior by the US army to the WikiLeaks website in 2010. She was tried by court martial and sentenced to 35 years in military prison. She has attempted suicide twice.

However, several press sources have been reporting that Manning is on Obama's shortlist for clemency.

Being that Obama's time in office is numbered, there's little left for him to do. Pardoning Manning would not only free someone who arguably did our country a service by exposing the military's bad behavior, but it would also save her life.

Edward Snowden, who is hoping for a pardon himself, has advocated for Manning above himself, tweeting, "Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency as you exit the White House, please: free Chelsea Manning. You alone can save her life."

And he's right— despite the fact that recently, Trump and WikiLeaks seem to have become a pair of strange bedfellows (interestingly enough, according to news website The Libertarian Republic, Julian Assange has said he will agree to extradition by the US if Manning is released) it's unlikely that Trump, who considers the constitutional act of flag burning treacherous, will be pardoning anyone any time soon.

Obama, who in the past has granted clemency to drug offenders, is quite possibly, Manning's last hope.

Freeing Manning wouldn't change the past poor treatment of whistleblowers, by the Obama Administration or other presidents, or even the court of public opinion. But it could set an important precedent, and lead to a domino effect of others, who were in many ways looking out for the interests of their fellow Americans, being freed.

It's a step in the right direction that Trump is too cowardly to take. One can only hope Obama makes the right choice.