Two of us, Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky, testified for Assange at his extradition hearing last year. In Ellsberg’s words then, the WikiLeaks publications that Assange is being charged for are “amongst the most important truthful revelations of hidden criminal state behavior that have been made public in U.S. history.” The American public “needed urgently to know what was being done routinely in their name, and there was no other way for them to learn it than by unauthorized disclosure.”
It isn’t debatable as that is what he is charged with. The fact that his crimes might have produced benefits for someone is immaterial to the fact he broke the law.
Given that he is without question in the employ if the Kremlin at this point, and possibly always was, he’s not someone I would hold up as being heroic or ethical.
His crimes are crimes. He isn’t protected by 1A if he broke the law to get the info he shared.