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It was ordered by a judge. What do you suggest he would do otherwise?

I'm only pointing out that this _may_ mean that the archives were compromised regardless of the fact he heroically shut down the whole thing.

Delete them before he was ordered to hand them over?

Yeah like any of the internet tough guys of Hacker News would violate a court order.

He deleted his entire business before handing them over. That's even more drastic, don't you think?