In my opinion he let his hype about himself to get to his head, basically he believed he could do anything and get away with it, this is in fact a shared characteristic among scammers and con men, they simply believe that by using words and a few tricks they can charm the audience and do whatever they want until the day comes when they cannot, and to me it seems that McAfee has finally reached the end of the line and will most likely spend the rest of his life on jail.
Even in jail, he can still voice his opinion, but with his influence and his money I don't think he will stay in jail for long he will make a plea bargain and pay a fine and do community service and he is out again, he can do this because he can pay top-notch lawyers who can do the job for him.
That is always a possibility since we know the justice system works differently for those that are rich and can literally buy their freedom, but everything will depend on what the US governments tries to do with this case, if they are not really interested in sending any kind of message then what you are saying is right, however if they are trying to send a message to bitcoin whales about paying their taxes then it is possible they will do everything so McAfee remains in jail as long as possible.
