Doesn't matter whether
Apparently they're charging him with 'conspiracy to commit computer intrusion' but it doesn't really matter what they charge him with because the sentence was passed the second he started exposing their dark secrets and practices. As for Britain, well they're helping because they're neck deep in the US mass surveillance network.
Just watch how this all plays out over the next few weeks, months, years because it's the perfect opportunity to see the whole free speech / right to a fair trial / freedom of the press / human rights etc. illusion shatter when it collides with the reality of how nation states actually operate. These are all lovely principled lofty ideals but when they come up against the 'interests' of the state and those who run it they're irrelevant and meaningless.
Assange, Wikileaks, Snowden etc, rightly or wrongly depending on your worldview, gave ordinary people a peek behind the curtain and the last thing ANY government wants is for their people to see what goes on behind the curtain!
HH Millsy.