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A comment on FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing exculpatory evidence. Parent comment

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by TechTeam12 on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:44AM (#32522462)
I think it's a great idea not to do the first thing you think of, and instead to think of alternatives before committing to a solution. But I'm scratching my head here trying to think, what are good alternatives? Are you suggesting we send their family to jail too? I mean honestly, what do we do here? Let them keep their job, pensions, and what ever hush money their received?

If this isn't a crime that sends you to jail, then I'm a little at a loss here.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by JumpCrisscross on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:53AM (#32522568)
> what are good alternatives

Allegedly corrupt state Senator claims exculpatory evidence on a wiped drive. Weigh what could have been there, benefit of doubt to the defendant, without doing anything automatically.

> this isn't a crime that sends you to jail

The FBI agent is going to jail. Per the article.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by thfuran on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:46AM (#32522488)
No, the issue is with guaranteed exculpation.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by GTP on Friday August 19, 2022 @12:12PM (#32522842)
I understand, but doesn't a wiped drive create reasonable doubt? Maybe there isn't even the need for a special law about this, just use reasonable doubt. I also have the feeling that there already are laws/case law about what to do in case of illegally destroyed (potential) evidence, we just don't know about it because we're not lawyers.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by JumpCrisscross on Friday August 19, 2022 @04:52PM (#32525783)
It does and it was. The defendant appealed, they figured out what was on the drive independently, and the evidence was weighed against him. This article is catnip for amplifying reasonable anti-authoritarianism into a general distrust of laws and justice.
[ Parent | on HN ]