It has succeeded. The government's motion has been granted, and the FBI does not have to provide the exploit code to the defense as previously ordered. That means that the defense in the case will probably be unable to examine how the evidence against their client was collected in the first place.

It is not totally clear why Judge Robert J. Bryan changed his mind. On Thursday, the government and Bryan held a private meeting, where the government presented its reasons for nondisclosure of the Tor Browser exploit. Court filings have indicated that the exploit itself may not be classified, but the reasons for non-disclosure are.

Originally, Bryan had ordered the malware disclosure because, although the case involved highly technical elements, the issue boiled down to a simple, constitutional point.