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Got a Target Letter About Images on My Computer – What Does This Mean
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Last Updated on: 14th December 2025, 04:45 pm
You opened your mailbox and found a letter from the United States Department of Justice. Maybe it came from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in your district. The letter says you are a “target” of a federal grand jury investigation. It references child exploitation material, images on your computer, or violations of federal law relating to child pornography. It invites you to contact the prosecutor or appear before the grand jury. And now you’re reading those words over and over, trying to understand what just happened to your life.
Here’s what a target letter means. The federal government believes it has “substantial evidence linking you to the commission of a crime.” Those are the exact words from the Department of Justice manual. A target letter is not a warning that you might be investigated. It’s notification that you already are being investigated – and that prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to charge you. About 80 to 90 percent of people who receive target letters end up indicted.
Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is to give you real information about what this letter means, what’s coming next, and what you can do in the limited time you have. Todd Spodek has represented clients who received target letters in federal child exploitation cases. He understands how these investigations work, what prosecutors are looking for, and how to navigate the dangerous period between receiving a target letter and a potential indictment. This article explains the reality of your situation.
What A Target Letter Actually Means
The Department of Justice categorizes people in federal investigations into three groups: targets, subjects, and witnesses.
A target is someone the government believes committed a crime. They have “substantial evidence” linking you to the offense. You are the primary focus of the investigation. You are expected to be indicted. Thats what “target” means in federal prosecution – your a putative defendant.
A subject is someone whose conduct falls within the scope of the investigation, but there status is unclear. The government is still investigating. They havent decided wheather to charge you yet. Subjects may become targets as the investigation progresses.
A witness is someone who has information about the crime but isnt suspected of wrongdoing. Witnesses testify but dont face charges.
If you recieved a target letter, you are in the first category. Prosecutors beleive they have substantial evidence against you. They have already presented that evidence to a grand jury – or will shortly. The investigation is not just beginning. Its nearing its conclusion.
Heres the uncomfortable truth. By the time you recieve a target letter, the government has probly been investigating you for months. Maybe years. They’ve gathered evidence from multiple sources. Theyve subpeonaed records. Theyve analyzed devices. Theyve built a case. The target letter is not an invitation to explain yourself. Its notification that theyre almost ready to indict you.
Why You Got A Warning At All
Heres something most people dont realize. The government is not required to send target letters. Theres no law that says prosecutors must warn you before indicting you. Most people who are indicted by federal grand juries never recieved a target letter. They found out they were defendants when agents showed up with an arrest warrant.
So why did you get one?
The Department of Justice has an internal policy – not a legal requirement, but a policy – to notify targets when the prosecutor believes its appropriate. This usualy happens in white collar cases or cases were the defendant isnt considered a flight risk. In some districts, its standard practice. In others, its rare.
But heres the paradox. If you got a target letter, the government probly wants something from you. They may want you to cooperate against someone else. They may want to give you an opportunity to plead guilty before indictment. They may simply be following there office procedures. But they didnt have to warn you. The fact that they did suggests they see some value in giving you time to respond.
At Spodek Law Group, we view target letters as opportunities – dangerous opportunities, but opportunities nonetheless. The window between recieving a target letter and being indicted is the only time you have to potentialy affect the outcome. Once the indictment is returned, your options narrow dramaticaly.
The irony is remarkable. Getting a target letter is actualy better then not getting one. Most defendants dont get this warning. Most defendants dont get time to prepare. You do. The question is wheather you use that time wisely.
The 30-45 Day Clock
Heres a number you need to understand. The typical timeline from recieving a target letter to grand jury indictment is 30 to 45 days. Sometimes less. In the Southern District of New York – one of the most aggressive federal districts in the country – prosecutors have been known to move from target letter to indictment in three weeks. The Middle District of Florida might take six weeks. But the point is the same: your time is extremly limited.
That clock started the day you got the letter.
This dosent mean you have 30-45 days to panic. It means you have 30-45 days to take strategic action. Every day you spend paralyzed by fear is a day your not building a defense, not exploring your options, not positioning yourself for the best possible outcome. Most people who recieve target letters spend the first week in shock. They spend the second week researching online. By the time they hire an attorney, half there window is gone.
The question isnt “am I going to be indicted.” Statisticaly, probly yes – 80 to 90 percent of target letter recipients end up indicted. The question is what you can do in the next few weeks to affect the outcome. Can you negotiate a plea agreement before indictment that produces a better sentence? Can you provide cooperation against other defendants that changes your status and sentencing exposure? Can you identify defenses – attribution issues, forensic problems, constitutional violations – that might give prosecutors pause? Can you at least prepare yourself and your family for whats coming?
What your attorney can do during this window:
Your attorney can contact the prosecutor and learn more about the investigation. What exactly are you being investigated for? What evidence do they have? Is there an opportunity for cooperation? These conversations happen all the time between defense attorneys and prosecutors, and they can reveal crucial information about your case.
Your attorney can negotiate a plea to an information – meaning you waive the grand jury process entirely and plead guilty to negotiated charges. This can sometimes produce better outcomes then waiting for an indictment and all the charges prosecutors decide to pile on.
Your attorney can explore whether a proffer session makes sense – and if so, negotiate the best possible terms for that proffer. Not all proffers are created equal. The terms matter enormously.
Your attorney can begin building your defense now, while memories are fresh, while evidence is still accessible, while witnesses remember what happened.
OK so what happens if you do nothing? Simple. The grand jury returns an indictment. Maybe its one count. Maybe its ten counts. You get arrested or surrendered. Youre processed into the federal system. Your facing trial with the 93% conviction rate working against you. And all the options you had during the pre-indictment window are gone.
The inversion that matters here: the target letter isnt the beginning of your case. Its the government telling you theyre almost done building it. You have a brief window to respond before that case becomes final. Use it or lose it.
The Grand Jury Fantasy
Some people recieve target letters and think: “I’ll testify before the grand jury and explain what really happened. Once they hear my side, they wont indict me.”
This is a fantasy. Heres why.
Federal grand juries indict 99.9% of the time. In 2010, U.S. attorneys prosecuted 162,000 federal cases. Grand juries declined to return an indictment in exactly 11 of them. Eleven. Out of 162,000.
The grand jury is not there to evaluate your innocence. The grand jury is there to determine wheather there is probable cause to charge you. Probable cause is a very low standard. It means “some credible evidence.” If prosecutors have enough to send a target letter, they almost certainly have probable cause.
Heres another thing most people dont know. Grand jury proceedings are secret. Your lawyer cannot be in the room while you testify. You can step out to consult with your attorney, but when your answering questions, your alone with the prosecutors and the grand jurors. Every word you say is recorded. Every statement can be used against you. And if you say anything inconsistent with other evidence, you just picked up a false statements charge.
The grand jury will not save you. Testifying before the grand jury without a strategic plan is one of the most dangerous things you can do. You will be alone in that room – just you, the prosecutors, and the grand jurors. Every question is designed to either confirm what they already beleive or catch you in an inconsistency. There is no cross-examination of there witnesses. There is no opportunity to present your own witnesses. There is no judge to rule on wheather questions are fair. Its there show, run by there rules, in there house.
At Spodek Law Group, weve seen clients who thought testifying would help them and ended up making there situations dramaticaly worse. Talk to a federal criminal defense attorney before you even consider appearing before the grand jury. In most cases, invoking your Fifth Amendment right and declining to testify is the safer path.
The Proffer Trap
After recieving a target letter, some people are offered the chance to participate in a “proffer session” – sometimes called a “Queen for a Day” agreement. The idea sounds appealing. You meet with prosecutors. You tell your side of the story. In exchange, they agree not to use your statements directly against you. Maybe you can work out a deal.
Heres what they dont tell you. The proffer can destroy you.
A proffer agreement typically includes something called “derivative use.” This means prosecutors cant use your exact words against you in there case-in-chief. But they can use the information you provide to find new evidence. If you tell them something they didnt know, they can investigate that lead. And if that investigation produces new evidence, that evidence can absolutly be used against you.
It gets worse. Virtually all proffer agreements allow the government to use your statements for impeachment. That means if you testify at trial and say anything inconsistent with what you said in the proffer, prosecutors can bring in your proffer statements to show your lying. This often forces defendants to either not testify at all or to avoid contesting key parts of the governments case.
And if prosecutors decide you werent truthful during the proffer? You just picked up a new federal charge – false statements under 18 USC 1001, punishable by up to five years in prison.
Think about what happened to Martha Stewart. She wasnt convicted of insider trading. She was aquitted of those charges. She went to prison for lying to investigators during the investigation. Michael Flynn pled guilty to making false statements – not to any underlying crime. The proffer session itself can become the crime.
At Spodek Law Group, we approach proffer agreements with extreme caution. Sometimes they make sense. But walking into a proffer without understanding the risks is like walking into a minefield. Defendants go in hoping to help themselves and walk out having handed prosecutors the evidence they needed for conviction.
What You Must Do Right Now
You recieved a target letter. The next few days are critical. Heres exactly what you need to do.
First: hire a federal criminal defense attorney today. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Today. Not a general practitioner who handles divorces and real estate closings. Not someone who primarily does state court DUI cases. You need an attorney who has handled federal grand jury investigations, who understands target letters, who knows how federal prosecutors think, and who knows how to navigate this extremely dangerous period. The 30-45 day clock is already running. Every day without representation is a day wasted – a day the government continues building there case while you sit paralyzed.
Second: do not contact the prosecutor yourself. The target letter probly includes a phone number and an invitation to call. It may say something like “please contact us to discuss this matter.” It sounds polite. It sounds like an opportunity to explain. Do not call. Everything you say to that prosecutor will be documented. Every word can be used against you. Every explanation you offer becomes part of there file. And if you say anything inconsistent with other evidence, you just created a false statements charge. Let your attorney make contact. Let your attorney control the communication. That is what attorneys are for.
Third: do not talk to anyone about the case except your lawyer. Not your spouse – there is no marital privilege for pre-existing statements, and your spouse can be compelled to testify about what you told them. Not your family. Not your friends. Not online forums or reddit threads. Anyone you talk to can be subpeonaed to testify about what you told them. Only attorney-client communications are protected by privilege. Everyone else is a potential witness against you.
Fourth: do not destroy any evidence. Do not delete files from your computer. Do not throw away phones or tablets. Do not wipe hard drives. Do not burn papers. Do not ask anyone else to destroy evidence for you. Obstruction of justice under 18 USC 1519 is a seperate federal crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison. It will make everything dramaticaly worse. It will garantee additional charges. And the government may already be watching – they may have your house under surveillance, they may be monitoring your internet activity, they may already know what your doing.
Fifth: understand that silence is a strategy, not a weakness. The Fifth Amendment protects your right to remain silent. Invoking that right cannot be used against you at trial. Prosecutors cannot tell a jury “he refused to talk to us, so he must be guilty.” Silence prevents you from creating new federal crimes through inconsistent statements. Silence prevents you from expanding the scope of charges against yourself. Silence gives your attorney room to maneuver. Your lawyer can speak for you when speaking is strategicaly advantageous – and can stay silent when silence serves you better.
Sixth: gather documents that may be relevant to your defense, but do not review devices that are the subject of the investigation. If there are records that could help your case – work schedules, travel records, communications that show your whereabouts – preserve them. But do not access computers or devices that might be targets of the investigation. Your attorney can advise you on what to preserve and what to leave alone.
Seventh: prepare yourself mentaly for a long and difficult process. Federal cases take months or years to resolve. The uncertainty is agonizing. You will have periods of intense activity followed by weeks of silence. You will experience fear, anxiety, depression, and hopelessness. These are normal reactions to an abnormal situation. Your attorney can help you understand the process and manage expectations.
Spodek Law Group has represented clients who recieved target letters in federal child exploitation cases. We understand the timeline. We understand the proffer risks. We understand how to explore plea negotiations, cooperation agreements, and defense strategies during this critical window. We understand that the pre-indictment period is often the only time you have to affect the trajectory of your case.
Todd Spodek has personally handled hundreds of federal cases. He knows how federal prosecutors think and how they build cases. He knows when fighting makes sense and when negotiation produces better outcomes. He knows how to evaluate proffer opportunities and how to protect clients from there dangers. And he knows how to help clients facing the most serious federal charges navigate this terrifying process with as much control as possible.
Call us at 212-300-5196. The consultation is free and completely confidential. The clock is already running – it started the day you opened that letter. You have a narrow window to affect the outcome of your case.
Dont waste it reading articles online. Dont waste it in denial hoping this will somehow go away on its own. It wont. Get experienced federal defense counsel now, before that window closes forever and your options disappear.