[dmvdoug]

I’m really not in love with the headline, which is admittedly The Verge’s own. The judge didn’t say he was going to “investigate” Google independently. Judges don’t have that power. He said he’d “get to the bottom of” the spoliation question later. He’s saying that Google had better be prepared to deal with this issue much more fully in trials to come, but for purposes of this one, he’ll settle on giving the jury an instruction about permissible inferences.

In other words, Google had better be ready to receive the mother of all sanctions motions (possibly sua sponte).

[EMIRELADERO]

From the article:

“I am going to get to the bottom of who is responsible,” he said, adding he would pursue these issues “on my own, outside of this trial.”

What's that if not an investigation?

[dmvdoug]

An order to show cause?

I guess you could call that an “investigation,” although it feels weird to me. By “on my own,” he has to be referring to sanctions power. He has no authority to just go a-sleuthing. “Outside of this trial” means he’s not going to disrupt trial proceedings with an order to show cause, even though he could, because some of the sanctions available to him include things that would immediately impact this trial (from a mandatory inference jury instruction up to default judgment).