I fully agree here. I think the mass phone wipe constitutes destruction of evidence and obstruction of justice at worst, and at the least can be charged as destruction of federal records. In my opinion (I'm not a lawyer) the Mueller team committed a grave error that exposes everyone who participated in wiping their phones to criminal prosecution, which should prove very handy as leverage in convincing them to turn on each other chasing a plea deal.
It's also possible this was set up as a kind of mutual defense exercise. If they all wipe their phones and refuse to testify, then it becomes that much harder to prosecute anyone for crimes more serious than deleting government records.
But there's a lot of leverage in even low-level felony charges, especially if you throw in conspiracy against the whole group, and there may well be chargeable crimes within the special counsel's official actions that can be brought to bear as encouragement. And the wipe will certainly count as evidence of consciousness of guilt.
This entry was published Thu Sep 24 02:28:58 CDT 2020 by TriggerFinger
and last updated 2020-09-24 02:28:58.0.
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