I was immediately wondering “why would he do that?”
Your postulation makes sense except he released those text messages very early, way before it started to unravel. Besides, he knew that it would come out that it was he who released them, so wouldn’t that argue against him doing that?
Saving his own ass from prison is a good motive.
I was stupid enough to believe he just did the right thing for a minute :)
“Saving his own ass from prison is a good motive.”
Which is why so many elite criminals roll over on their peers and higher ups, is when they realize that their A$$ might go to prison unless they roll over on peers and higher ups.