I don't see that it does.

In reference to the scene where Michael asks about Fredo and gets info on his bodyguard & Roth...I don't take that as Tom 'protecting' Fredo. At this point his mind is more on breaking the news about Kay's 'miscarriage', which he knows Michael will take badly.

Why would Tom guess that Fredo was in New York? Maybe because other than Vegas, New York was the only home Fredo had ever know and where else would the buffoon go, having no connections & no source of income anywhere else? It was the logical conclusion.

At the wake of their mother, Tom literally brushes off Fredo after curtly answering his questions about Michael's whereabouts. Seconds later when Connie asks to see Michael, he graciously tells her where to find him.

It's pretty clear Tom has no use for Fredo, and no interest in protecting him. He would be a fool to do so, and there was only ONE fool in the Corleone Family. Again, while the idea of killing Fredo may have turned his stomach on an emotional level, as a business decision he might have known that it was the only punishment that was just.

Apple