◆ SpookStack

that he regarded as unimportant. There is no evidence that the recordings thereby erased were anything but what Weinberg judged them -- unimportant. Once when he was flying to New York from Florida, a number of -tapes, less than 10, were stolen from his flight bag, an incident he promptly reported to Amoroso. With some conversations the: recorded portion does not begin until after the conversa* tion had obviously begun; with others, the recorded portion ceases: before the conversation ends. All of these Claims add up to an assertion that not every conversation during Abscam between Weinberg and various. subjects was preserved in a recording. As already discussed, however, this is not a constitutional defect. While it offered to defendants an argument to. the jury as to the credibility of the government's case, the argument did not prove to be persuasive. The Myers’ defendants argue, in addition, that the "missing" tapes require an inference: that thy contained exculpatory material. However, they explain neither what effect the inference should have nor in what way the unre- corded conversations could exculpate any of the defendants. 21/ Nor did they request such a charge to the jury. Perhaps defendants. seek a “per se' rule that whenever a law enforcement agent fails to record a conversa-_ j 4