A hearing could be required or further evidence sought before the G.A.O.
The evidence sought in Mr. Ashcroft's filing, though, is intended to resolve another dimension to Russian corruption.
Now the federal government is working hard to raise the standards of evidence, seeking to distinguish between what is effective, useless and harmful or even dangerous.
Last month, Mr. Spitzer announced a settlement of criminal charges against a former Alger executive, James P. Connelly Jr., over allegations of tampering with evidence sought by Mr. Spitzer's office.
Mr. Swartz said evidence produced at trial of his "larcenous intent" was "scant," and that Tyco disclosed privileged material only when prosecutors "determined that the evidence sought would advance their case," according to his appeal.
In that case, Reynolds v United States, the government lied to the court about the sensitivity of evidence sought by the plaintiffs and won a binding precedent that allows the president to withhold evidence and seek dismissals by invoking the state secrets privilege.
It suggests that investment banks will have to take responsibility and pay for the recovery of e-mail messages as long as plaintiffs can demonstrate that the evidence sought is relevant to their cases.
A federal judge ordered UBS yesterday to pay the majority of the costs involved in restoring e-mail evidence sought by a former employee who is accusing the bank of sex discrimination.
In the same time period, Requests for Evidence seeking additional documentation in the fourth quarter of 2017 nearly equaled the total amount of Requests for Evidence from the year's other three quarters combined (63,184 and 63,599 requests, respectively).
In deciding whether the evidence sought to be adduced does have this tendency, the judge has to look outside the law.
