[zmb_]

Not for "anticipatory obstruction of justice". It doesn't matter whether what you destroyed is important to a case or not. There does not even need to be a case at all. You can still be charged if you deleted something, and maximum penalty is imprisonment for 20 years. Hanni Fakhoury, EFF attorney, gave a talk about this at ShmooCon 2012[1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzssKvRwrzQ

[Lawtonfogle]

Doesn't this mean that even clearing your browsing cache is a crime? I deleted temp files recently because they were taking up a bunch of space. I did it to free up space but there could've been evidence there for some investigation (maybe some virus on my machine left evidence of who wrote the virus in temp files that would've allowed the feds to track down the creator).

This seems like one of those laws that sounds good at first but makes a lot of normal behavior illegal, thus allowing the legal system to be able to pick and choose who gets punished.

[secabeen]

The burden is on the prosecution to prove that "The accused acted at least “in relation to” or “in contemplation’” of such issue or matter." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obstruction_of_justice#Obstruc...