As he wraps up his presidency, it's time for Barack Obama to seriously consider pardoning whistleblowers Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.

Last week, Manning marked her six-year anniversary of being behind bars. She's now served more time than anyone who has leaked information to a reporter in history – and still has almost three decades to go on her sentence.

It should be beyond question at this point that the archive that Manning gave to WikiLeaks – and that was later published in part by the Guardian and New York Times – is one of the richest and most comprehensive databases on world affairs that has ever existed; its contribution to the public record at this point is almost incalculable. To give you an idea: in just the past month, the New York Times has cited Manning's state department cables in at least five different stories. And that's almost six years after they first started making headlines.