"No, *we* cannot, because we do not have the required security clearance. Do you understand that whether or not the originals are still there doesn't matter at all?"
***
Not "we" as in you and I, but we as in the government, specifically the folks in the current administration who DO have this clearance.
As for the criminal charges against Berger, no it doesn't matter much whether the originals are still there. Either way he is in HOT water...
My question was whether or not the originals are still there and if so (and more to the point), wouldn't they have all the info that Berger is being busted for? Now someone else has mentioned the importance of "notes scribbled in the margins" but are these notes scribbled in the margins of the originals? If they are and the originals are still there, then we (the US gov't) have all the info that Berger swiped.
On the other hand, if it's a case of Berger removing these original docs and replacing them with copies that have the margin notes whited out or otherwise obliterated, and shredding the originals, then there is serious trouble in River City...
Do you understand what I'm getting at now?
Supposedly there are a couple of docs that are completely missing, because he kept going back and taking out the same ones.
These may have been "inadvertently destroyed" after Berger inadvertently swiped them.