"The Government acknowledges that this is inconsistent with what Government counsel previously understood and represented to the Court."
Since the boxes were seized and stored, appropriate personnel have had access to the boxes for several reasons, including to comply with orders issued by this Court in the civil proceedings noted above, for investigative purposes, and to facilitate the defendants’ review of the boxes.
There are some boxes where the order of items within that box is not the same as in the associated scans. There are several possible explanations, including the above-described instances in which the boxes were accessed, as well as the size and shape of certain items in the boxes possibly leading to movement of items. For example, the boxes contain items smaller than standard paper such as index cards, books, and stationary, which shift easily.
To the degree that items in a box are not the same as in associated scans matters in the larger scheme of things is another question. The admission that they previously told the court that these boxes were untouched and now admit that that was not true seems to be the overriding issue. This is the admission of a lie with the attempt at a reasonable explanation as to why the lie was told. Legal mumbo jumbo as a layman might suggest.
The obvious question would be that if there were legitimate reasons for the government to be messing around with evidence (including the issues suggested by the Government), then why would the Government not have been forthright about that up front. Why suggest that these boxes were untouched if there were legitimate reasons for people to be going through them? As for the idea that items shift within a box, again that does suggest that someone was handling the boxes. Items within boxes do not shift, unless the boxes are handled.
Yes, we lied about this. But trust us when we say that the lie was an innocent one.