“Julian exposed the raw corruption of the deep state . Doing so did something the elites find unforgivable: he embarrassed them and therefore must crushed!”
Assange knowingly committed a crime. Several, in fact. He might have thought it was for a good cause, but the individual doesn’t get to make that determination, that’s what courts are for. You don’t get to skip the legal rigamarole just because your crime is popular with the general public.
And if the courts don’t agree, and if it was a crime that really was for the public good, that’s what presidential pardons are for.
To commit the crime and then try to weasel out of the foreseeable consequences by pretending you’re some manner of a crusader is pure cowardice. If he wasn’t prepared to stand it like a man, he shouldn’t have done it.
In 1940 Germany, hiding Jews was also a crime. In 2021 America protesting a stolen election is now a crime , if unofficially at the moment.