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What to Do If the FBI Wants to Interview You
What to Do If the FBI Wants to Interview You The Statute That Makes the Interview Dangerous The single decision that determines the trajectory of most federal prosecutions occurs before any charge is filed, before any grand jury convenes, and, in a significant number of cases, before the subject understands that a crime is being […]
read moreFederal Embezzlement Charges and Penalties
Federal Embezzlement Charges and Penalties The crime is complete before the defendant understands it as a crime. Under federal law, embezzlement does not require a plan to steal, does not require permanent deprivation, and does not forgive the person who intended to return what was taken. The moment government property or federally connected funds are […]
read moreFederal Identity Theft and Fraud Charges
Federal Identity Theft and Fraud Charges A federal identity theft prosecution ends, in most cases, with a guilty plea. The arithmetic of mandatory consecutive sentences renders the alternative unacceptable. When each victim’s identity used in furtherance of a predicate felony adds two years of nonconcurrent prison time, and when prosecutors can charge each use as […]
read moreCan I Travel If I’m Under Federal Investigation?
Can I Travel If I Am Under Federal Investigation? The Right You Already Have and the Mistake You Are About to Make The answer is yes. You can travel domestically and internationally while a federal investigation is pending against you, provided no charges have been filed and no court has entered an order restricting your […]
read moreFBI Investigation vs. Arrest: Understanding the Process
FBI Investigation vs. Arrest: Understanding the Process The federal investigation concluded months before the arrest. That is the sentence most practitioners in this area wish their clients had understood before the agents arrived, and it is the sentence that reframes every question a person asks once the process has already begun. Every article on this […]
read moreFederal Sex Trafficking Defense: Human Trafficking Charges
Federal Sex Trafficking Defense: Human Trafficking Charges The federal sex trafficking statute does not require what most people believe it requires. Section 1591 of Title 18 criminalizes a set of acts connected to commercial sex, but the convictions that hold and the convictions that collapse tend to separate at a single junction: what the defendant […]
read moreFederal Sexual Exploitation of Minors: Production Charges
Federal Sexual Exploitation of Minors: Production Charges Fifteen years is the floor. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2251, a first conviction for production of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor carries a mandatory minimum of fifteen years in federal prison and a maximum of thirty. No federal judge possesses the authority to sentence below […]
read moreFederal Child Exploitation Charges: SESTA/FOSTA Cases
Federal Child Exploitation Charges: SESTA/FOSTA Cases The government does not need to prove you trafficked a child. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2421A, the federal provision that FOSTA created in 2018, the government needs to prove you operated a platform with reckless disregard that your operation contributed to trafficking. The distinction between the person who commits […]
read moreMassachusetts Federal Criminal Defense: Defending Federal Charges in Boston
The federal conviction rate is a statistic that conceals more than it measures. In the District of Massachusetts, as in every federal district, the vast majority of cases end in guilty pleas. The figure that circulates through anxious conversations (somewhere above ninety percent, depending on the year and the methodology) reflects less about what happens […]
read moreCollege Student Federal Arrest
College Student Federal Arrest The federal system does not distinguish between a twenty year old and a forty year old at the moment of arrest. The handcuffs are the same. The booking process, the initial appearance before a magistrate, the government’s calculation of whether to seek detention: none of it adjusts for the fact that […]
read moreIs It Insider Trading If I Didn’t Sell?
Is It Insider Trading If I Didn’t Sell? The answer is yes, and the question itself reveals a misunderstanding of what the statute prohibits. Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 does not concern itself with the direction of the trade. It concerns itself with the act of trading while in possession of […]
read more21 USC 841 Drug Distribution Charges
21 USC 841 Drug Distribution Charges: What the Statute Measures, What the Government Proves, and Where the Defense Begins The sentence that determines the rest of a defendant’s life in a federal drug case is not the one read at sentencing. It is the one printed on the indictment, the line that specifies a quantity. […]
read moreSEC Form 1662: Understanding Your Rights and Obligations
SEC Form 1662: Understanding Your Rights and Obligations The Document Most Witnesses Never Read The four pages of SEC Form 1662 contain more consequential language than most contracts a business owner will sign in a decade. The form accompanies every subpoena the Commission issues and precedes every request for voluntary testimony. Between those two categories […]
read moreWhat Happens After a Federal Indictment?
A federal indictment is not a conviction, but it does not feel that way on the morning it arrives. The document itself is formal and spare — a recitation of charges, statutory citations, and a brief description of the alleged conduct. It does not explain the evidence or identify the witnesses. What it communicates is […]
read moreCan I Refuse to Talk to FBI Agents?
The Constitutional Right to Say Nothing The Fifth Amendment protects your silence, and it does so whether you are guilty, innocent, or somewhere in the grey territory that most people occupy when federal agents appear at their door. You do not need to speak to the FBI. You do not need to explain why you […]
read moreAm I Under FBI Investigation? Warning Signs to Watch For
Am I Under FBI Investigation? Warning Signs to Watch For The Question You Are Already Too Late to Ask The fact that you are searching for signs of an FBI investigation is, in most cases, the only sign you need. Federal investigations do not announce themselves. They operate in silence for months, sometimes years, constructing […]
read moreFBI Investigations
Federal Criminal Defense: FBI Investigations The investigation does not begin with an arrest. In most federal cases involving the FBI, the arrest is one of the last things that happens. The work that precedes it—grand jury subpoenas, witness interviews, document production, surveillance, and the assembly of a case file that may run to tens of […]
read moreFederal Tax Evasion: Criminal vs. Civil Cases
Federal Tax Evasion: Criminal vs. Civil Cases Every federal tax case, civil or criminal, reduces to the same evidentiary question, and the answer is never located in the numbers on the return. The IRS does not prosecute arithmetic. It prosecutes intent. A taxpayer who understates income by the same amount in two successive years may […]
read moreConspiracy Charges in Federal White Collar Cases
The Function of Conspiracy in Federal Prosecution Conspiracy is the charge that makes every other count in a white collar indictment more dangerous. It does not describe a separate act of wrongdoing so much as it describes the architecture of the wrongdoing itself, the agreement between persons that precedes, accompanies, and outlasts the substantive offense. […]
read moreFederal Customs Violations: Import/Export Crime Defense
The phone call from a customs broker is not the beginning. By the time a business owner receives notice that Customs and Border Protection has flagged an entry, the investigation has been underway for weeks, sometimes months, conducted through data analysis and cross-referencing that the importer never perceives until the consequences arrive. Federal customs violations […]
read moreFederal Firearms Offenses: Charges
Federal Firearms Offenses: Charges The federal government does not treat a firearms charge as an accessory to something else. It treats the firearm as the crime. This distinction, which most defendants do not perceive until the indictment is already filed, determines the trajectory of everything that follows: the court, the sentencing range, the absence of […]
read moreGrand Jury Subpoena Duces Tecum: What Documents Must I Produce?
The subpoena duces tecum does not ask whether you possess relevant documents. It presumes that you do. The distinction matters, because the response you fashion in the first seventy-two hours will determine not only what the government receives but what it is permitted to use against you, your employees, and anyone whose name surfaces in […]
read moreCan I Refuse to Testify Before a Federal Grand Jury?
Can I Refuse to Testify Before a Federal Grand Jury? You cannot refuse the subpoena. You may, under certain conditions, refuse to answer specific questions. The distance between those two facts is where most people lose their footing, and where the consequences of misunderstanding become severe. The impulse to treat a grand jury subpoena as […]
read moreHow to Quash a Federal Grand Jury Subpoena
How to Quash a Federal Grand Jury Subpoena A federal grand jury subpoena carries a presumption of regularity that most recipients do not understand until it is too late to alter their position. The Supreme Court confirmed as much in United States v. R. Enterprises, where the burden of demonstrating that compliance would be unreasonable […]
read moreSafety Valve Provisions: Avoiding Mandatory Minimums in Drug Cases
Safety Valve Provisions: Avoiding Mandatory Minimums in Drug Cases The Criterion Nobody Prepares For The five requirements for safety valve relief under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) are not, in practice, equally difficult to satisfy. Four of them are matters of record: criminal history, the absence of violence, no death or serious bodily injury, no leadership […]
read moreFBI Search Warrant at My Home or Business: Your Rights
FBI Search Warrant at Your Home or Business: Your Rights The search warrant is not the beginning of the investigation. It is, in almost every case we encounter, confirmation that an investigation has been underway for months or years in silence. By the time federal agents arrive at a residence or place of business, the […]
read moreHow to Get a 5K1.1 Motion for Sentence Reduction
How to Get a 5K1.1 Motion for Sentence Reduction The Government’s Motion, Not Yours The single most consequential fact about a 5K1.1 motion is the one most defendants learn too late: you cannot file it yourself. Only the government can request this departure. Only the prosecutor decides whether your cooperation qualifies as substantial. Only the […]
read moreFederal Grand Jury Subpoenas
Federal Grand Jury Subpoenas The federal grand jury subpoena communicates more than most recipients perceive on first reading. Before the envelope is opened, before counsel is retained, before the words “Fifth Amendment” enter the conversation, the government has already determined that a person possesses something it requires: testimony, documents, or both. The subpoena is not […]
read moreShould I Respond to a Target Letter Without a Lawyer?
The answer to this question has already been decided for you, though not in the way you might expect. A federal target letter is not a request for your side of the story. It is a document whose purpose is to set a process in motion, and that process does not require your participation to […]
read moreVermont Federal Criminal Defense
Vermont Federal Criminal Defense The Small Docket Problem The District of Vermont prosecutes fewer federal criminal cases than nearly any district in the country, and that is precisely what makes it dangerous. A defendant in the Southern District of New York is one file among hundreds. A defendant in Vermont is one among perhaps eighty. […]
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