I think the plea deal actually debunked the idea that he took docs. Govt could only "get him" on a meeting minutes doc. And the trade secrets that were found at Uber were software brought over by software engineers that haven't been charged.

Here's his own quote: "I downloaded this file with the intent to use it for the benefit of someone other than Google,"

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/former-google-self-dr...

This isn't accurate. The M&A documentation from Uber confirmed that Levandowski had stolen 5 discs worth of data from Google.

IIRC he allegedly also tried to wipe all evidence of it which is why it was hard to prove. So it seems he knew what he was doing.

E.g. Don't steal what's not yours if you don't want to be pursued and have that action leveraged against you..