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Isn't it legal to destroy evidence that can be used against you? That's basically exercising your right to not self-incriminate.


Oh dear no. The U.S. protection against compelled self-incrimination is for testimony, not seizure of papers/effects. Spoliation of evidence is illegal, and in some cases if it's not a crime by itself, it can still even lead to doubt being resolved against you (in other words, if you destroy a key document in a legal proceedings, the court might make a legal judgment that assumes the document's contents were as bad as possible for your case, even if it actually wasn't).




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