Originally published at: In Odd Ruling, Trump Judge Acknowledges Admin’s ‘Troubling’ Response to Pretti Killing, but Dismisses Concerns About Evidence Tampering
Judge Eric Tostrud, a Trump appointee, handed down an often contradictory ruling Monday night lifting his order requiring the preservation of evidence surrounding Customs and Border Protection agents’ killing of Alex Pretti last month. On one hand, he acknowledged that statements from Trump officials absolving the agents of any culpability for the killing immediately after…
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Bad faith and stupid are a heady mix. Sure, of the head in the mix is pure bone, but it’s always a sight.
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tl;dr – “Feel free to start destroying evidence”?
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Here’s Tostrud’s calculus
about whether the potential of spoiled evidence causes irreparable harm to the state investigators: “If I’m correct that Defendants are not likely to spoliate or destroy evidence related to Mr. Pretti’s shooting, it follows that Plaintiffs are not likely to suffer irreparable harm caused by spoliation or destruction. If I’m wrong about that and spoliation is assumed, irreparable harm seems likely, but it is not certain.”: “If I lift my order requiring the preservation of evidence, I might receive a future Supreme Court appointment; If I preserve my order, I will definitely not receive a future Supreme Court appointment.”
FIFY! 
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The judge must be hyper-focused on evidence-tampering, and not on evidence withholding, which we are witnessing in the Epstein matter.
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“Yeah, you’re right. But I’m going to do less than nothing about it.” Passive aggressive conspirator 101