What is the effect of a magistrate judge's comment that the Government bears the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt?

In dismissing the magistrate judge's comment as a slip of the tongue, the majority wrongly analogizes this case to United States v. Coutchavlis, 260 F.3d 1149 (9th Cir. 2001). In that case, the magistrate judge's verbal juxtaposition of two thoughts (the absence of evidence contradicting the Government's witness's testimony and a finding in accordance with that testimony) could have been read as implying a burden on the defense to come forward with evidence. Id. at 1156. But the resulting ambiguous statement did not have to be read that way, and it was "more reasonable to interpret the magistrate judge's comment" as simply meaning that there was nothing in the record that caused the judge to have a reasonable doubt. Id. at 1156-57. Here, by contrast, there is no reasonable alternative way to read the magistrate judge's actual words that would be consistent with the law. The majority also points to the magistrate judge's "findings," see Order at 4, but there is nothing in those findings to indicate that they were made under the proper standard of proof. And the fact that the record elsewhere contained boilerplate statements of the Government's general burden of proof in criminal cases does not establish that the magistrate judge recognized that the Government bore the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt when she addressed the specific issue of self-defense.