Not to mention Mycroft's people who witnessed the shooting too! 

besleybean wrote:

...
I am sure John is completely reliable...though he obviously references this oversight in his convo with Mycroft about pulling strings for the family.

Not quite - it's John who tells Lestrade that Sherlock shot Magnussen.

And of course Mycroft completely overlooks Vivian Norbury, but that was the point of the episode (tip for real life: treat all secretaries/assistants/whatever with the utmost respect, they can make your life miserable if they dislike you).

But actually, upon re-watching, the meeting does not seem to have much sense at all (apart, obviously, from filling in the viewers): At first I thought Mycroft was informing his higher-ups of what happened, but in fact it's the guy behind the desk who explains that they manipulated the video. And Lady Smallwood sounds as if she had agreed to this method of getting Sherlock off the hook. The only one for whom it is news seems to be Sherlock (and us, of course) - and it's actually surprising that Mycroft gives up his hold over Sherlock so easily...

You don't tell "top secret" things to your close and trusted friends or even your families! Not if you value your job, your freedom and possibly your life...

As for Mycroft warning Sherlock: Maybe. But the meeting lets Sherlock off the hook for CAM's murder, and IMHO permanently - there's video "proof" that he didn't do the crime. (Incidentally, is video still allowed as proof? Michael Crichton based a novel on video manipulation back in the 90s...) Whereas without the meeting Mycroft could have told Sherlock "I'm hushing it up for you, so behave or else..." (put more elegantly and menacingly, of course).

 

Exactly! We are in complete agreement -  my post #4 was my reaction to besleybean's #3 "John is completely riable", and in #6 I attempted to make clear that Greg being a close and trusted friend has nothing to do with it.

John probably would be reliable, if somebody told him what to do. Not knowing the real events were top secret, he told Lestrade, who also doesn't know that the event should be secret so who knows whom he will tell...

There's a reason for the saying: "Three men can keep a secret if two of them are dead!"