If you knowingly participate in or act in furtherance of a crime, that's also a crime. No journalist has been convicted under the Espionage Act. The reason isn't because actual real journalists don't expose things that embarrass the US government. It's because they don't participate in the exfiltration of controlled documents or direct sources to gather specific information.

The case on Manning is not the only time [0] that Assange played spymaster while hiding behind claims of being a journalist.

[0] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/6/25/julian-assange-cons...