diff --git a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/cp/cp.go b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/cp/cp.go
index 1f43cbf6403..36ac59bcb83 100644
--- a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/cp/cp.go
+++ b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/cp/cp.go
@@ -122,8 +122,8 @@ type fileSpec struct {
 }
 
 var (
-	errFileSpecDoesntMatchFormat = errors.New("Filespec must match the canonical format: [[namespace/]pod:]file/path")
-	errFileCannotBeEmpty         = errors.New("Filepath can not be empty")
+	errFileSpecDoesntMatchFormat = errors.New("filespec must match the canonical format: [[namespace/]pod:]file/path")
+	errFileCannotBeEmpty         = errors.New("filepath can not be empty")
 )
 
 func extractFileSpec(arg string) (fileSpec, error) {
diff --git a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/cp/cp_test.go b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/cp/cp_test.go
index eb75a0e18b8..5ead99135e5 100644
--- a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/cp/cp_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/cp/cp_test.go
@@ -549,35 +549,6 @@ func TestBadTar(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-// clean prevents path traversals by stripping them out.
-// This is adapted from https://golang.org/src/net/http/fs.go#L74
-func clean(fileName string) string {
-	return path.Clean(string(os.PathSeparator) + fileName)
-}
-
-func TestClean(t *testing.T) {
-	tests := []struct {
-		input   string
-		cleaned string
-	}{
-		{
-			"../../../tmp/foo",
-			"/tmp/foo",
-		},
-		{
-			"/../../../tmp/foo",
-			"/tmp/foo",
-		},
-	}
-
-	for _, test := range tests {
-		out := clean(test.input)
-		if out != test.cleaned {
-			t.Errorf("Expected: %s, saw %s", test.cleaned, out)
-		}
-	}
-}
-
 func TestCopyToPod(t *testing.T) {
 	tf := cmdtesting.NewTestFactory().WithNamespace("test")
 	ns := scheme.Codecs