What target?

Assange pleaded guilty and was sentenced. He was sentenced to the same time he served in jail in the UK while fighting extradition. So he had already served his time and was set free. He probably can't enter the US or the UK, but he's a free man back in Australia now. Target is off his back.

He gave a speech in France in Oct so he can travel.

He did genuinely commit a crime. It wasn't like a newspaper getting an envelope of secrets and publishing them. He actively helped Manning stealing documents.

This was said to be among the worst things

Prosecutors also added a charge related to the disclosure of national defense information that included the unredacted names of human sources in places such as China, Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

This would have led to people working against Communist China to be killed.

There were definitely concerns that in the Vault 7 case he also stepped over the line. Some people thought he would get indicted for this.

The Hacker in the Vault 7 case got 40 years

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/prosecutors-want-life-sentence-ex-cia-hacker-leaked-secrets-wikileaks-rcna136775

But you're right Pompeo wanted him bad.

According to this Pompeo went ballistic about vault 7

https://www.yahoo.com/news/kidnapping-assassination-and-a-london-shoot-out-inside-the-ci-as-secret-war-plans-against-wiki-leaks-090057786.html