Thankyou very much for the link, re the charges, which I've just read.
It does seem that Manning sent him part of one particular password, and we don't know what he did with it - except to use the words at one point "no luck so far" - and (since no resultant intrusion is then mentioned) it would seem this particular password was not cracked, and that nothing happened as a result of any action of his.
So AFAICT no part of the access and release of information was aided in any way by any illegal activity of his.
I recall reading at the time that he was being accused of advising someone on password cracking. (Advising and failing, it seems.)
Now, this is *bad*. I can't tell from the charges whether he overtly offered help, and it sure looks like he didn't manage to provide help. But it's bad. Like, a few years in jail bad, maybe?
But it would be ridiculous to think that what's happened to him since then, ie years in Solitary in the UK's most high-security dungeon and a likely (brief) lifetime in a similar US cell, is because of this. (Compare vs what Manning did, or anyone really.) He is, however, the guy who embarrassed the hell out of the US and showed the world that the US can be as big a bunch of barbarians as any "evil dictatorship". And it would be massively helpful to any future US barbarism if journalists were wildly afraid of revealing any they encounter.
And this is why so much of the world, even among your "friends", hate America. Which is a great shame. Please stop being so barbaric, and stop trying to destroy journalists who expose it.
(My apologies if I misread / misunderstand what Assange did.)