It’s odd that WaPo put out it’s story on Marco Rubio’s coke-dealing brother in law on New Year’s Eve. It’s odder that the story focuses on Rubio’s recommendation of his convicted relative (Orlando Cicilia) for a post-prison real estate license — but doesn’t mention the destruction of records angle in Ann Bardach’s earlier Politico piece, which seems potentially more damaging to Rubio. From Bardach:

According to never-before-reported documents shown to Politico, federal case files related to Orlando Cicilia’s narcotics conviction were destroyed three days before the court acted on the Univision request for them in July 2011. A spokesperson for the federal courts said the documents were “destroyed in accordance with the record schedule,” and that it was just a coincidental “matter of timing” that Univision was pursuing the story.

P.S.: The most damaging angle, I think, is suggested in the following pregnant WaPo paragraph:

Rubio also declined to say whether he or his family received financial assistance from Cicilia, who was convicted in a high-profile 1989 trial of distributing $15 million worth of cocaine. The federal government seized Cicilia’s home; the money has never been found.