NEW YORK — Chelsea Manning believed she had a “responsibility to the public” and didn’t think she was risking national security when she leaked a trove of classified documents, the soldier said in her first interview since being released from a military prison last month.

The 29-year-old formerly known as Bradley Manning said in a pre-taped interview broadcast Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she was prompted to give the 700,000 military and State Department documents to WikiLeaks because of the human toll of the “death, destruction and mayhem” she saw as an Army intelligence analyst in Iraq. She told ABC that she has “accepted responsibility” for her actions.