The passage also discusses how statements about Jesus’ arrest or killing might be construed. One possible reply is that a text can report the claims or intentions of hostile actors without thereby endorsing those claims as a verified description of the event.
“They said they had done X” and “X actually occurred” are distinct propositions. The first shows that the assertion was made; the second requires proof of the occurrence itself.
An important limit remains: this is a proposed answer in a particular historical theological debate. It is not a complete textual-critical evaluation of all existing Gospels and should not be represented as a consensus Christian reading. Its immediate instructional value is the logic of quotation, report and fact.