Government Admits Evidence Shredding

After a federal judge chided the Treasury Department for covering up the shredding of 162 boxes of records on Native American trust funds, government lawyers have admitted that the department destroyed still more potential evidence in a lawsuit alleging federal mismanagement of the funds. The destruction of computerized check records was disclosed in a letter to a court-appointed investigator overseeing documents in the case. The documents could have helped track payments made to Indian trust account holders, plaintiffs’ lawyer Keith Harper said.