If you don’t want to get in trouble for committing plagiarism, don’t commit plagiarism.
Sometimes, when someone has an axe to grind against you, they may choose to dig into your past to look for hidden sins or crimes to bring you down. Even if what you did is unrelated to they reason they have an axe to grind.
A recent example of this occurred to former Harvard president, Claudine Gay. She managed to anger some really powerful people. Those people she angered did some research, and found out that Dr. Gay committed plagiarism. This resulted in her being shown the door.
Whatever one thinks of the people who pointed out Dr. Gay’s plagiarism, and whatever their motives, a single fact remains: Dr. Gay committed plagiarism. The consequences were deserved.
Then again, those consequences included being allowed to keep her $900,000/yr salary and her professorship. If only everyone got the same sort of golden parachute.
On the other hand, Neri Oxman is now accused of plagiarism. Ms. Oxman is the wife of Bill Ackman. Mr. Ackman is the billionaire who helped get Dr. Gay demoted by revealing her plagiarism, and now the people with an ax to grind against him are accusing his wife of plagiarism. Whoops! But if she committed plagiarism, then she should be held accountable.
My advice remains the same: if you don’t want to get in trouble for committing plagiarism, don’t commit plagiarism.