It possibly matters a great deal in regards to his defense.

I know i'll probably just be accused of being a pedant for pointing this out, but theft is still a crime, and theft of laptops containing classified material is really a crime, and at the very least (assuming the government didn't just make this charge up whole cloth), stealing laptops full of classified material and running off to China with them after spilling your guts to the Guardian might not tilt a jury in his favor.