Chelsea Manning pardon would get me to surrender, Julian Assange says

Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder who has been in exile for nearly half-decade in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, says he will agree to extradition to the United States in exchange for clemency for whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

"If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case," WikiLeaks tweeted late Thursday.

Manning, a 29-year-old transgender woman being held in men's prison, is a United States Army solider serving a 35-year sentence for passing classified information to WikiLeaks. NBC News reported on Tuesday she is on the "short list" for commutation by the president in the closing days of his time of office.

Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy since 2012, evading Swedish sex assault charges he claims are spurious and politically-motivated. Assange, the famous hacker and publisher who plunged into the forefront of this past presidential election, "could also face possible espionage charges in the United States," The Hill reports.

The Daily Mail reported that Edward Snowden, the former government contractor who became a fugitive whistleblower in 2013, also appealed to Obama on Manning's behalf this week.

"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," Snowden, who is a fugitive from the United States living in Moscow, tweeted on Wednesday.

A New York Times profile of Manning's incarceration published Friday noted that she is "struggling to transition to life as a woman while enduring a bleak existence at a male military prison." Chelsea, formerly Bradley, "poses particular challenges as a prisoner" because of past suicide attempts and a "need for treatment that the military has no experience providing."