Manning was not pardoned, his sentence was commuted. People gave it a pass because Manning was clearly mentally ill and therefore the Army was partly responsible by putting him in a position to do what he did.
Slightly pedantic, but you are right. Sentence communicated by the Obama Admin; effectively pardoned considering the life in jail possibility.
Oh, but now there is an issue. Are trans people mentally ill according to you - or just Manning? Because he committed a crime, then became a she - they no longer are responsible for their actions? Not bad enough to lock up, but bad enough to punish associates for.
By that reasoning, Assange allegedly helped someone that doesn’t exist anymore, commit a crime that no one pays for. Seems like my original point.
Edit: Remembering that not only would Assange not now how ill Manning was (to head off any claims of exploitation) but the info Wikileaks has published has all been true and most users here celebrated its release. That if you agree with the US Gov here you are arguing that supplying information like that on encryption cracking or hacking or any topic that someone could abuse should leave you vulnerable to their misuses, that sure seems like a bad policy.
