Unfortunately the law usually legislates against acts rather than outcomes. Additionally in the eyes of the law, hacking a celebrity does not bring a higher pu

Unfortunately the law usually legislates against acts rather than outcomes. Additionally in the eyes of the law, hacking a celebrity does not bring a higher punishment than hacking a nation state, despite its good intentions and the public interest of the released information. And he isn't accused of "helping to protect an intelligence source", because that's not a crime. One claim raised by the prosecution is that Assange was sent hashes and ran them against a rainbow table in an attempt to provide assistance to manning in order to grant further access to confidential government systems. If this claim is true or not, we don't know because it hasn't gone to court yet, but the accusation is more than "just protecting a source". And personally I think there should be an exception to releasing documents that show government wrongdoing which means it isn't illegal - however this is not codified in law.