I'm the only one who believes in Miles Edgeworth

[cashew]

Ugh, I'm getting really annoyed with the way everyone in fandom assumes Edgeworth pre-redemption was an evidence falsifying lying liar. We've only had all of two cases of Edgeworth pre-redemption (three if you count brat!Worth's first trial against Mia, in which Edgeworth did nothing and the defendant died on the fucking stand).

So, the two cases pre-redemption: Turnabout Sisters and Turnabout Samurai.

Let's tackle Turnabout Samurai first.

In this case, Edgeworth is already feeling uncertain about how he's been doing things and he straight up helped the defense with their argument when Phoenix Wright missed an obvious contradiction in the witness' testimony. Edgeworth knew he was going to lose the case, but instead of doing everything he can to win and let Wright suffer the consequences of his mistake, Edgeworth helpfully points out the oversight. This was already an Edgeworth that couldn't stand to watch a killer walk away just because his investigation team pinned the crime on someone else.

So that leaves Turnabout Sisters.

I've mentioned before that Edgeworth was clearly discomfited by how the Chief Prosecutor was meddling with his case and that there was pressure from up above to get a guilty verdict at all costs. That already shows that even Evil!Edgeworth still had a sense of right vs. wrong.

But then there's the specific acts of bad faith, of which I count only two: not sharing the updated autopsy report and prepping his witness to omit details until asked directly by the defense.

In the former, Edgeworth is clearly trying to walk the tightrope of bending the law without outright breaking it. He's not sharing false autopsy reports, he's simply sitting on the report once things changed. And he'll try to make mountains out of molehills if that can help his case. But that's not the same as falsifying evidence. He doesn't make things up out of nowhere. He orders a new autopsy report in the hopes of getting something more useful, much like how patients get second opinions in case there's something slightly different that will change their decision. Compare that to the damning issue of game 4, Apollo Justice, where Wright straight up does fabricate evidence to win against evil Kristoph and is unapologetic about it. (He excuses himself by citing he's already been disbarred for it, but it doesn't fly at all with the audience. And while Apollo punches Wright for it, it's not like Apollo goes and demand a retrial due to forged evidence.) There were only rumors about false evidence with Edgeworth, never canon proof that Edgeworth forged anything.

In the latter, witness prepping is a perfectly legal practice. Asking a witness to omit parts of a testimony until directly asked is a common practice and is not considered witness tampering. What's more, actual witness tampering (keeping key witnesses out of court) is something the defense attorneys (supposed good guys) actually use in the same game. For example, Wright tried to tell Lotta to not go to the police with the testimony against Edgeworth in Turnabout Goodbyes because it wouldn't be good for his case (at least according to the anime canon; in the game you can also encourage, albeit reluctantly, Lotta to go to the police, then get yelled at for doing so). Or a more egregious example: Wright and Mia discuss how to keep Hackins from testifying in Turnabout Samurai because they realized his testimony was bad for their case, but they were foiled by Gumshoe who overheard and drag the witness away. If the audience is OK with the good guys manipulating witnesses, then they can't hold it against Edgeworth for doing something similar but more ethically sound.

So the only thing we've got to hold against Edgeworth are some baseless rumors heavily implied to be driven by professional jealousy from his fellow prosecutors. To condemn Edgeworth as "evil", even pre-redemption, and assume he must have fabricated evidence is jumping the gun. Therefore, I don't think Edgeworth ever stepped over the line.

(Also, I hold it against Wright for believing those rumors in the first place. So much for trusting Edgeworth.)