Yes, that would be my take on it. The government can still make use of inadmissible or illegally obtained evidence. The evidence here was obtained legally, so

Yes, that would be my take on it. The government can still make use of inadmissible or illegally obtained evidence. The evidence here was obtained legally, so it will likely be used to bolster the case against the defendants and anyone that may have assisted them. Even in the case of illegally obtained evidence, there are techniques like parallel construction [1] that they can use to make their cases. They also have the so-called "clean hands" exception, which allows allows the government to introduce evidence into trial that was illegally obtained by a third party when the government did not play any role in obtaining that information [2]. The US legal system was designed to seem exceedingly fair on its surface, while allowing for unconscionable abuses by those skilled in maneuvering through its loopholes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction [2] http://jipel.law.nyu.edu/ledger-vol-1-no-2-2-coffman/ http://jipel.law.nyu.edu/ledger-vol-1-no-2-2-coffman/