What is the use of cloning the element in the link()?

var originalElement = $(element)[0].cloneNode(true);

Why do we need this in link method? If we need then i see the 'originalElement' variable is only used when attrs.kRebind value is there? Could we move the statement under this condition? Since, we saw a memory leak issue that's why we moved the statement under the condition? If this change has any impact please let us know.