Harvard Cancels Chelsea Manning's Visiting Fellowship Invitation: What You Need To Know

Harvard University withdrew a fellowship invitation to Chelsea Manning on Friday after CIA Director Mike Pompeo cancelled an appearance at the university Thursday over the invitation.

Institute of Politics at Harvard's John F. Kennedy school of government had announced Wednesday that the military whistleblower was among a group of 10 invited as visiting fellows to speak at the university.

Dean of the school, Douglas W. Elmendorf, in a statement Friday, however, said "designating Chelsea Manning as a Visiting Fellow was a mistake, for which I accept responsibility."

"We invited Chelsea Manning because the Kennedy School’s longstanding approach to visiting speakers is to invite some people who have significantly influenced events in the world even if they do not share our values and even if their actions or words are abhorrent to some members of our community," the statement on rescinding Manning's invitation read.

However, the dean said the school was still "maintaining the invitation for her to spend a day at the Kennedy School and speak in the Forum."

The school's decision came hours after the CIA director withdrew from an event he was scheduled to appear at the school, calling the university’s invitation to Manning a “shameful stamp of approval on her treasonous actions."

Just as the event was about to begin, Elmendorf took to the stage and told the audience that Pompeo was not there and his speech would not be taking place, reports said.

"We will try to reschedule it as soon as we can, but the CIA director, is obviously, in charge of his schedule," Elmendorf said. "We are not in charge of his schedule and he gets to decide when and where he speaks, of course."

Pompeo, a graduate of the Ivy League university, wrote a letter to the school, saying appearing at an event in the university, which had offered an invitation to Manning, would betray Pompeo's conscience and the trust of the CIA people.

"I believe it is shameful for Harvard to place its stamp of approval upon her treasonous actions," Pompeo wrote. He also called Manning a "traitor" in the letter.

Not just Pompeo, the invitation to Manning also upset former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell, who announced his resignation Thursday as a senior fellow at the school.

In a letter to the dean, Morell wrote that he could not be a part of an organization "that honors a convicted felon and leaker of classified information, Ms. Chelsea Manning, by inviting her to be a Visiting Fellow."

Manning tweeted in response to Morell’s resignation with just one word: “Good.”

In response to Harvard's cancellation of her fellowship invitation, Manning posted a series of tweets.

Along with Manning, Harvard invited former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski to be visiting fellows at the university.

Manning was an army private who released classified government materials to WikiLeaks and was punished by the U.S. military for months in conditions, which were denounced by the United Nations as torture, reports said. Manning was released from a military prison in Kansas after serving seven years of a 35-year sentence, after being commuted by former President Barack Obama in his final days in office.