No, he has not discredited himself. He still has all the constitutional guarantees provided to any american citizen. He has to write to participate in democracy. Just because of this selective prosecution, he is not banished from american public life.
He pled guilty to a felony. He will likely go to prison. He gave them the weapon to use against him and his rights to participate in democracy will now be limited - will he have the right to vote, own a gun, work freely when he has a felony conviction? If he intends to offer knowledge to the rest of us, he should have been smarter, himself.