That line of thinking may technically help him substantially. The actual document theft isn't something he can walk away from, but the amount of harm it caused

That line of thinking may technically help him substantially. The actual document theft isn't something he can walk away from, but the amount of harm it caused can definitely be argued in court. It is public knowledge he worked on lidar systems prior to working at Google so the scope of the processes and ideas that went into the stolen documents may simply be refinements from his Darpa days. Those refinements could ultimately be argued to be worth a LOT, but it does help his case- IMHO.