Isn't that _exactly_ how parallel construction works?
"No, your honour, we didn't use any of those grey-area or outright illegal surveillance technologies, we just got lucky in a random traffic stop. Again. Amazing how all these gang bosses drive around with tail lights out, isn't it?"
I could believe that they used illegal Palantir and retconned a search warrant. I could believe they did an illegal search and retconned a Palantir insight. But I'd like to know which claim is being made. Is Palantir the crime or the coverup?
"Hickerson, who was sentenced to 100 years in prison, has accused prosecutors of suppressing analytic evidence obtained through the use of Palantir, arguing he had a right to view the evidence if his name surfaced as being affiliated with a gang, or if his name was absent from any analytic data related to 3-N-G."
and
'Ken Daley, a spokesman for the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office, said in a statement Wednesday, however, that Palantir "played no role whatsoever in Mr. Hickerson's indictment and prosecution."'
The defence is claiming the investigators used "analytic evidence" obtained from Palantir but are refusing to allow him to view it. The prosecution are claiming Palantir played no role - which is exactly what you'd expect if parallel construction were being used.
Related - cynical me considers 'no role whatsoever in Mr. Hickerson's indictment and prosecution' to be exactly the sort of weasel-worded denial you'd use if you had used Palantir information to construct a story explaining how you'd indicted and prosecuted someone based on _other_ evidence that you wouldn't have known about without the unacknowledged Palantir-sourced evidence you'd want to hide from judicial scrutiny...
"No, your honour, we didn't use any of those grey-area or outright illegal surveillance technologies, we just got lucky in a random traffic stop. Again. Amazing how all these gang bosses drive around with tail lights out, isn't it?"