It’s not an issue of him ever thinking of choosing to wipe it during his travel, he clearly had no initial intent of doing so, which is why he didn’t do it before departing . What’s caused all the legal issues is that he decided to give his duress pin when his actual pin was demanded by the US border guards. The border guards entering that pin caused the device to reboot and factory reset. That’s why he’s in trouble. They’re claiming he purposefully caused evidence to be destroyed when an investigation was already underway.