They're not criminalizing dissent in their indictment of Assange, they're criminalizing the conspiracy to hack government systems with the intent to leak state

They're not criminalizing dissent in their indictment of Assange, they're criminalizing the conspiracy to hack government systems with the intent to leak state secrets. If Assange didn't help Manning dig deeper as alleged, there was no crime. If he did assist, he committed a crime. It's entirely disconnected from publishing documents you happened to come across, which according to New York Times Co. vs United States is not a crime. Do you see how there's a difference between actively taking a role in attacking state computer systems versus just publishing documents? They're two very different acts. A journalist equips someone to break into some company building, rifling through their records to show the public they're poisoning the river. The person doing the search gets caught and are arrested after they find what they were looking for. The journalist publishes their findings. The person who was caught had their phone linking them to the journalist equipping them. The journalist is charged with conspiracy of breaking and entering and trespassing. See how writing the article isn't the thing being tried here?