LSAT 19, Logical Reasoning II, Q5, LSATHacks

LR Question 5 Explanation, by LSATHacks

QUESTION TEXT: Attorneys for a criminal defendant charged that the…

QUESTION TYPE: Evaluate The Argument

Accusation: You destroyed relevant evidence that would have helped our case!

Reply: There is no evidence in favor of your case.

ANALYSIS: The government doesn’t deny that it destroyed the documents. It’s a pretty weak reply.

It’s even possible the government attorneys mean: there was evidence, but we destroyed it, so now there is no evidence that supports the defendant.

___________

1. CORRECT. The government doesn’t deny the accusation. There could be no evidence because the government destroyed the evidence.
2. The government didn’t reply to the attorney’s charge.
3. Same as B. The government says nothing about the attorney’s charge. The government just make a very broad (and unproven) statement that there is no evidence at all for the defense.
4. Not quite. The government could be right. Maybe it did an exhaustive search and found no evidence.
5. This is tricky. The government is making a claim about the present: there is currently no evidence. That could be true, perhaps because the government destroyed the evidence that supported the defendant!

Recap: The question begins with “Attorneys for a criminal defendant charged that the”. It is a Argument Evaluation question. Learn how to master LSAT Evaluate questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.

Hi, I'm Graeme Blake

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