Accepting and encouraging the theft of classified US property will land you in jail even if you are a citizen of Mars! The only issue is can US authorities get to you to enforce that. Many a foreign spy (the recruiter not the recruited US citizen!) caught here has faced the possibility of being charged. 999/1000 the “gentlemen’s agreement” is evoked and they’re sent home. Example the hot read-head who ran the incompetent ring a few years back. All were sent home after possible charges were waved at them.
They thing I find interesting from the reporting is no mention of violation of the Espionage Act. Again from the reporting it looks like Assange tasked Manning, if true that’s huge! It makes it conspiracy to commit espionage. So I think Assange has cut a deal. Of course it also could all be sloppy reporting too and there’s no deal.
First off, our own press does that on a regular basis. According to your assertion, Ali Watkins should be in jail, right? Why ain’t she?
Second, Assange is not American and did not operate in US jurisdiction. Our laws no more apply to him than than China’s laws apply to us here.
Combine the two and it’s all but impossible to convict him of anything. Find the statute that applies, if you disagree.