I searched for both those sentences in the past year at least once. I also made other sketchy searches on a weekly basis. Curiosity should not be considered evidence of a crime.
As mentioned in the article, it's part of the reasons why prosecutors consider him to be a flight risk. He was searching for this, alongside figuring out what countries don't have extradition treaties and how to get to the Russian embassy.
Eg, searching “how to pick locks” when you’ve also robbed a house — even though people search that without committing crimes.
That’s particularly true for evidence showing intent.
The question for evidence is not “is this alone irrefutable proof of wrongdoing?” but “does this in an ensemble with other known facts raise the probability of guilty?”
Every single high profile case involves these sort of details including ones where the defendant is found innocent.
All it takes is reading the takedown of a prosecutors case a few times to hear these “facts” with an highly skeptical ear.
At one point I had thousands of searches a day on multiple networks on my "profile"