Maybe it's as simple as him being a serial liar and/or attention seeker. And the attempt to recreate the jump kind of falls in line with that. What year is the above newspaper clip from ? Is it closer to the 1971 or further away?
On the other side of it, even if he corrected the record that the back chutes were not his, the front chutes were still his and he was still the rigger for Hayden's back chutes so I am not sure it would have really diminished his attention.
I guess not everything that happens always follows perfect logic. It just feels like something is missing from the equation, perpetuating a false narrative in an FBI investigation is playing with fire and you would think there would be a real reason to do it beyond just wanting attention. But again reality doesn't always follow the most logical path.
