Criminal Defense Lawyers

New York City Federal Criminal Defense

The FBI agent’s business card sits on you’re kitchen table. Its 2 AM, and your searching Google for “federal prison sentences” trying to understand if you’ll see your daughter graduate high school. The target letter arrived three days ago—actually, wait, four days ago—and you have maybe 48 hours before they move to indict. This isn’t a state misdemeanor. This isn’t something you can fix with a weekend in county jail.

This is the United States of America versus you, with unlimited resources, a 93% conviction rate, and teams of career prosecutors who have spent 18 months building their case while you had no idea you where even under investigation.

Federal criminal defense in New York City operates in a completely different world then state court. Different rules, different judges, different prosecutors, different stakes. The decisions you make in the next 72 hours—whether to speak to agents, which attorney to hire, wether to cooperate, how to prepare for your detention hearing—these choices will determine the next decade of your life. Maybe longer. This guide provides the intelligence you actually need, not generic legal advice but real information about how Manhattan federal court works, what decisions you face, and how to think about the impossible choices ahead.

Understanding Manhattan Federal Court: SDNY vs. EDNY and Why Venue Matters

New York City federal criminal cases are prosecuted in two seperate federal districts, and the difference between them isn’t just geography—its potentially 3 to 5 years difference in sentencing.

The Southern District of New York (SDNY) covers Manhattan, the Bronx, Westchester, Orange, Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, and Sullivan counties. The main courthouse is at 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan (the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse), with a secondary location at 40 Foley Square. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for SDNY is located at One St. Andrew’s Plaza and is widely regarded as one of the most powerfull federal prosecutor offices in the country.

The Eastern District of New York (EDNY) covers Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Nassau, and Suffolk counties. The main courthouse is at 225 Cadman Plaza East in Brooklyn, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office at 271 Cadman Plaza East. While both districts prosecute federal crimes, their focus and culture is remarkably different.

SDNY has built it’s reputation on white collar crime prosecutions. Securities fraud, bank fraud, public corruption, complex financial schemes—these are the cases that make headlines and that SDNY prosecutors built their careers on. The office has 220+ Assistant U.S. Attorneys, many from top law schools and prestigous law firms, and they view themselves (not incorrectly) as the elite of federal prosecution.

If your facing fraud charges in Manhattan federal court, your up against prosecutors who have handled cases against Bernie Madoff, hedge fund executives, and corrupt politicians. The median sentence for fraud cases in SDNY is 42 months, and judges in this district are statistically harsher on white collar defendants then their EDNY counterparts.

EDNY, by contrast, handles more traditional organized crime, drug trafficking, violent crime, and international smuggling cases. The prosecutorial culture is more pragmatic, less Ivy League, and historically more willing to negotiate reasonable plea agreements. That doesn’t mean EDNY is “easier”—if your charged with drug trafficking or firearms offenses, EDNY prosecutors are extremely experienced and effective. But the sentencing tendencies differ. SDNY judges on average sentence fraud defendants approximatley 6 months longer than EDNY judges for similer conduct.

Where the crime occured determines which district prosecutes your case, but sometimes the government has discretion. Wire fraud, for instance, can be prosecuted in any district where a wire communication passed through.

If you sent emails from Manhattan to victims in Brooklyn, prosecutors might have venue selection options. This matters because not just the sentencing tendencies but the jury pools differ—Manhattan juries versus Brooklyn juries bring different perspectives to white collar crime cases.

Once your case is filed in SDNY or EDNY, you’re subject to random judge assignment. You cannot “judge shop.” The wheel spins, and you get assigned a judge who will handle your case from arraignment through sentencing. Some SDNY judges consistently sentence above the Federal Sentencing Guidelines in fraud cases. Some judges grant suppression motions more readily. Some judges are skeptical of cooperation agreements.

Your attorney needs to immediatly research your assigned judge’s sentencing history, ruling tendancies, and approach to federal criminal cases because this randomness can effect your outcome as much as the facts of your case.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York maintain official websites with court rules, judge assignments, and procedures. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for SDNY and U.S. Attorney’s Office for EDNY provide information about their enforcement priorities.

If you cannot afford a private attorney, the Federal Defenders of New York provides representation for indigent defendants and has a strong reputation among public defender offices.

The Federal Criminal Process: Decision Points That Determine Your Future

Federal prosecution isn’t a single event—its a series of time-sensitive, high-stakes decision points where you must choose between bad options and worse options with imperfect information. Understanding these decision points is critical because each choice effects every choice that follows.

Decision Point 1: The Knock on the Door (Hour 1).

FBI agents appear at your home or office. They’re polite, professional, and they want to ask you “a few questions” to “clear some things up.” This is the most dangerous moment of your entire case. Never speak to federal agents without your attorney present. Not because you have something to hide, but because 18 U.S.C. § 1001 makes it a seperate federal crime to lie to federal agents.

Even misstatements, even errors of memory, even technically accurate statements that agents interpret differently—these become obstruction of justice charges that add years to your sentence.

Politely decline to answer questions. Invoke your Fifth Amendmant rights. Accept service of any subpeona or warrant (refusal is futile), but do not consent to searches beyond the warrant’s scope. Call an attorney immediatly before you say anything substansive.

Decision Point 2: The Target Letter (Week 1-2).

You recieve a letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office informing you that your a target of a grand jury investigation. The letter typically gives you 2-4 weeks to respond and may offer an oportunity for a proffer session—a meeting where you can present your side of the story to prosecutors before they decide whether to indict. This sounds like an oppertunity, but its actually a minefield.

By the time you recieve a target letter, the investigation is essentially complete. The grand jury has heard from witnesses, reviewed documents, and prosecutors have drafted the indictment. They’re offering you a chance to talk yourself out of charges they’ve already decided to bring.

Sometimes—rarely—a proffer session can convince prosecutors that they’ve misunderstood the facts or that certain charges aren’t supported. More often, proffering gives them additional evidence to use against you and eliminates defenses you might of had at trial. The decision whether to proffer requires experienced federal defense counsel who knows the prosecutors involved and can assess wether you have valuable information or viable defenses that make proffering worth the risk.

Decision Point 3: Arrest and Detention Hearing (Day 1-3).

When the indictment is unsealed, you’ll either be arrested or given the oppurtunity to self-surrender (which is always preferable). You have a constitutional right to an initial appearance before a magistrate judge within 72 hours of arrest. This detention hearing determines whether your released pretrial or detained until trial—a decision that profoundly effects your ability to assist in your defense, maintain employment, and support your family.

In SDNY, approximately 40% of defendants are detained pretrial, especially in fraud cases over $1 million or cases involving allegations of obstruction. Your attorney has these 72 hours to prepare a bail package that addresses the court’s concerns about flight risk and danger to the community. This means gathering letters of support, identifying property for bond, arranging for pretrial services supervision, and preparing family members to testify about your ties to the community.

Many defendants lose detention hearings because they’re unprepared, not because detention was inevitible.

Decision Point 4: The Initial Plea Offer (Month 2-6).

After your arraignment and initial discovery exchange, the prosecutor will typically make an initial plea offer. This isn’t their “best” offer—its an opening position in a negotiation that will likely last months. The offer might be “plead guilty to 3 counts, we recommend 60-72 months.” Your guideline range might be 87-108 months. The mandatory minimum might be 60 months.

If you went to trial and lost, you’d face 120-150 months because you wouldn’t get the acceptance of responsibility reduction.

This is the math that haunts federal defendants: the plea offer, the guideline range, the trial risk. Your attorney’s job is to evaluate the strength of the government’s evidence, identify viable defenses, research your assigned judge’s sentencing tendancies, and help you understand the actual risks and benefits of different paths forward.

Decision Point 5: The Cooperation Question (Timing Varies).

At some point—maybe before indictment, maybe after the initial plea offer, maybe months into the case—prosecutors will decide wether to offer you a cooperation agreement. This is the decision that keeps defendants awake at night, and we’ll discuss it in detail below because its complexity demands its own section.

Decision Point 6: Trial or Final Plea (Month 6-10).

Under the Speedy Trial Act (18 U.S.C. § 3161), federal cases must go to trial within 70 days of indictment, subject to excludable delays for motion practice, plea negotiations, and competency evaluations. In reality, most federal cases take 8-14 months from indictment to trial because both sides request continuances.

But eventually you reach the final decision point: accept the prosecution’s best offer or proceed to trial.

The statistics are sobering. 91% of federal cases resolve through guilty pleas. Of the 9% that go to trial, 87% result in conviction. Defendants who go to trial and lose receive sentances that are, on average, 25-40% longer than they would of received if they’d pled guilty, primarily because they lose the acceptance of responsibility reduction (typically 2-3 levels in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, translating to a 25-30% sentence reduction).

Trial also costs an additional $100,000-$300,000 in attorney fees beyond the fees for plea preparation. None of this means you shouldn’t go to trial—if the government’s evidence is weak, if you have strong defenses, if you’re factually innocent, trial might be the right choice. But you need to understand the stakes with open eyes.

Each of these decision points is governed by complex federal rules and procedures. The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure establish the framework, but the reality of federal practice includes unwritten norms and local procedures that vary between SDNY and EDNY. Experienced federal criminal defense attorneys understand these nuances and can navigate them effectively.

The Economics of Federal Prosecution: Why Your Case Went Federal and What It Means

Federal prosecutors are selective. They don’t take every case—they’re not state prosecutors handling DUIs and shoplifting.

Understanding why your case went federal reveals strategic oportunities and explains the government’s leverage.

Federal cases typically involve dollar thresholds that state prosecutors can’t or won’t handle. Frauds under $100,000 are rarely prosecuted federally unless they’re part of a larger scheme. Cases between $100,000 and $500,000 are the gray zone—might be federal or state depending on other factors. Cases between $500,000 and $1 million almost always go federal if interstate commerce is involved (and it almost always is—using banks, wires, mail, or the internet typically satisfies the interstate commerce requirement). Cases over $1 million are federal prosecution priorities. Cases over $10 million get assigned to senior prosecutors and rarely result in plea deals without cooperation.

So if your facing federal charges for a $75,000 fraud, ask yourself why it went federal. Usually it means your the small fish in a bigger investigation. They charged you federally because they want you to cooperate against someone else—your boss, your business partner, the person who recruited you into the scheme.

You have leverage in this situation because they need your testimony more then they need to send you to prison. Irregardless of how it feels, being charged with a low-dollar fraud federally often means your a witness, not the ultimate target.

The government’s charging decisions are also based off their cooperation economics. Federal prosecutors offer cooperation agreements based on what information you have, who you can implicate, and how strong their case is without you. The first defendant to cooperate gets the best deal—a substantial assistance departure of 40-50% below the guidelines is common for early cooperators. The second cooperator gets a decent deal.

By the time your the fifth person cooperating, the government doesn’t need you anymore and won’t offer meaningful sentance reductions.

This creates a prisoner’s dilemma among co-defendants: everyone knows that the first person to flip gets the best deal, but cooperating means testifying against people you know, possibly people you care about. More on this below.

Federal prosecutors also engage in charge stacking—indicting you on 15 counts when realistically your guilty of 3. This isn’t prosecutorial misconduct; its strategic leverage. The 15-count indictment creates maximum sentencing exposure (if you went to trial and were convicted on all counts, you’d face 25 years). This exposure pressures you to accept a plea deal to 3 counts with a sentance recommendation of 5 years.

The prosecutor gets a conviction without the time and expense of trial. You get a sentance dramatically lower then your maximum exposure. Everyone wins—except that the initial 15-count indictment was always somewhat inflated. Understanding this dynamic helps you evaluate plea offers more realistically.

Another economic reality: the Department of Justice’s 2025 policy increasingly targets individuals rather then just corporate entities. If your company settles with the government and pays a fine, that doesn’t mean your safe from individual prosecution.

The “responsible corporate officer” doctrine allows prosecutors to charge executives for subordinates’ criminal conduct even if the executive didn’t know about the specific illegal activity. This is particularly common in FDA violations, environmental crimes, and financial fraud cases. If you held a senior position in a company being investigated, you need to understand that corporate settlements don’t shield individuals from prosecution.

The DOJ Criminal Resource Manual provides guidance on charging decisions and prosecutorial discretion, though much of the actual decision-making involves factors that aren’t publicly documented. Experienced federal defense attorneys develop relationships with Assistant U.S. Attorneys over years of practice and gain insight into how different prosecutors evaluate cases and make cooperation offers.

The Cooperation Dilemma: The Decision That Haunts You

Here’s the thing—and I mean this is probably the most important section of this entire guide—the cooperation decision is the one that defendants struggle with more then any other. Its not a legal question or a strategic question, really.

Its a moral question with legal consequences that will effect you for the rest of your life.

The prosecutor slides a cooperation agreement across the table. The document is maybe 8 pages long. Sign it, and you plead guilty today to all charges. Then you meet with prosecutors and FBI agents for weeks or months of debriefing sessions where you tell them everything you know about your crimes and everyone else’s crimes.

Then you testify at trial against your co-defendants—people you’ve known for 10 years, 20 years, people who trusted you—in open court where their attorneys cross-examine you about every mistake you’ve ever made.

Then, after all the trials are complete and you’ve provided all your cooperation, you get sentenced. The government files a 5K1.1 motion for substantial assistance departure, and your 12-year guideline range becomes 4-6 years.

Don’t sign it, and you’re looking at 10-15 years but you didn’t rat out anyone.

You have 48 hours to decide. How do you put a number on that choice?

Let me be clear about what cooperation actually requires, because defendants often misunderstand this. You plead guilty first, then cooperate—you cannot take this back if cooperation fails. Your signing a plea agreement admitting to federal crimes before you’ve provided any cooperation. If the cooperation falls through—if prosecutors decide your information isn’t valuable, if you fail to testify credibly, if you’re caught in a lie—your stuck with that guilty plea and you get sentenced as a convicted defendant with no cooperation credit.

The agreement can be voided if you commit any new crimes, if you fail to disclose any criminal conduct, or if prosecutors determine your not being fully truthful. This is a one-way door.

What cooperation looks like in practice: You meet with prosecutors and agents maybe 10 times, 15 times over several months. They ask you about every transaction, every meeting, every phone call, every email. They show you documents and ask you to explain them. They ask you about people you worked with, people you reported to, people who reported to you.

Your telling them about your brother’s involvement, your boss’s knowledge, your business partner’s role.

Cooperation requires testifying against co-defendants in open court, usually at their trial, sometimes at multiple trials if there’s several co-defendants being prosecuted seperately. The defense attorneys cross-examine you aggresively, trying to show your lying to get a sentance reduction. Your testimony is public record. Everyone knows you cooperated.

In some cases, the government asks you to wear a wire—a recording device—to meetings with targets of the investigation. You’re sitting across from someone you’ve known for 20 years, having a conversation about criminal activity, and every word is being recorded and monitored by FBI agents in a van down the street. Your trying to get them to make admissions on tape.

This is what cooperation sometimes requires.

The benefits are real. The average substantial assistance departure is 40-50% below the guideline range. Some cooperators get even greater reductions—I’ve seen cooperators with 20-year guideline ranges receive 5-year sentences based on extensive cooperation. The 5K1.1 motion (named after the sentencing guideline provision) allows the court to sentence below mandatory minimums in drug and firearm cases.

Cooperation can literally mean the difference between 3 years and 15 years. If you have children, if you have aging parents, if you have a spouse who needs you—3 years versus 15 years is the difference between maintaining some semblance of family life and loosing a decade of your children’s lives.

But the costs are real to. Your labeled a “rat” in the criminal world. If the case involves organized crime or drug trafficking, witness protection might be neccessary. Your relocating your family, changing your identity, leaving behind everyone you knew.

Even in white collar cases, you’ve testified against people who might of been friends or respected colleagues. You see them in court during their trial, and they won’t look at you. There families won’t look at you.

Your cross-examined about every bad thing you’ve ever done, every lie you’ve ever told, every mistake you’ve made—all in an attempt to discredit your testimony. The emotional weight is enormous.

And here’s the timing reality that creates the prisoner’s dilemma: first cooperator gets the best deal; fifth cooperator gets nothing. If there’s 5 co-defendants in your case, the person who flips first gets the 40-50% reduction. The second cooperator gets 30-40%. The third gets maybe 20-25%. By the time the fourth and fifth defendants decide to cooperate, the government has plenty of testimony and evidence already—they don’t need more cooperators and won’t offer meaningful reductions.

This creates enormous pressure to cooperate early, before your co-defendants do, even though cooperating early means you have less information about what the government’s case actually looks like.

Real talk: I’ve seen cooperation destroy families. I’ve seen defendants who cooperated and never spoke to their siblings again. I’ve seen cooperators who received sentance reductions but couldn’t live with what they’d done.

I’ve also seen defendants who refused to cooperate receive 20-year sentences when cooperation would of gotten them 6 years, and they spend every day in prison wondering if they made the right choice.

There is no easy answer.

Some defendants are never offered cooperation because they’re the target, not the witness. If your the boss, if your the organizer, if your the person everyone else is cooperating against—prosecutors aren’t interested in your cooperation. Your conviction at trial is the goal. If prosecutors haven’t mentioned cooperation after several months, that’s probably your situation.

The Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual Section 5K1.1 governs substantial assistance departures, and 18 U.S.C. § 3553(e) allows sentencing below mandatory minimums based on cooperation. But the actual decision to offer cooperation, and the value placed on your cooperation, is entirely within prosecutorial discretion.

This is one area where your attorney’s relationship with the Assistant U.S. Attorney handling your case matters enormously.

Cost of Federal Criminal Defense: The Investment in Your Future

Let’s talk about money, because defendants often make catastrophic mistakes by underfunding their defense.

Underfunding your federal defense is one of the most common reasons for poor outcomes. The attorney charging $15,000 flat fee for your federal fraud case is either inexperienced in federal court or planning to plead you out immediatly without conducting any investigation. Federal cases require 150-250 attorney hours minimum, and often substantially more.

Hourly rates for experienced federal criminal defense attorneys in New York City range from $400 to $900 per hour, with most established federal practitioners charging $500-$700 per hour. These rates seem high until you understand what federal defense requires.

Your attorney needs to review thousands of pages of discovery documents (financial records, emails, witness statements, grand jury transcripts). They need to research complex federal statutes and sentencing guideline applications. They need to investigate the facts independently, interview potential witnesses, retain expert witnesses when necessary, and prepare sophisticated legal motions. They need to negotiate with experienced federal prosecutors who handle these cases every day.

Federal criminal defense costs reflect the complexity and stakes involved.

Most federal criminal defense attorneys require a retainer between $35,000 and $75,000 for fraud or white collar cases. This retainer covers the initial stages: investigation, motion practice, plea negotiations, and sentencing preparation. If the case goes to trial, you’ll need an additional trial costs retainer of $75,000-$200,000 depending on the complexity and expected length of trial.

A complex federal fraud trial lasting 3-4 weeks can easily cost $150,000-$300,000 in attorney fees alone, not including expert witness fees, investigation costs, and other expenses.

Here’s a realistic cost breakdown for a federal fraud case:

Investigation phase: $10,000-$15,000 (reviewing discovery, interviewing witnesses, retaining investigators if needed)

Motion practice: $5,000-$10,000 (motions to suppress evidence, motions to dismiss counts, motions for bill of particulars)

Plea negotiations: $8,000-$12,000 (multiple meetings with prosecutors, evaluating offers, calculating guideline ranges)

Sentencing preparation: $12,000-$20,000 (sentencing memorandum, gathering character letters, psychological evaluations, sentencing hearing)

If the case goes to trial: $75,000-$200,000 (trial preparation, jury selection, trial itself, post-trial motions)

Total for a case that pleads out: $35,000-$57,000. Total for a case that goes to trial: $110,000-$257,000.

Some attorneys offer payment plans, though most require at least 50% of the initial retainer upfront. Some defendants liquidate retirement accounts, borrow from family members, or take loans against property to fund their defense. This seems extreme until you understand the alternative: a inadequately funded defense that results in a sentance 5 years longer then necessary because your attorney didn’t have time to investigate exculpatory evidence or prepare a proper sentencing presentation.

If you genuinely cannot afford a private attorney, you may qualify for representation by the Federal Defenders of New York, which provides excellent representation to indigent defendants. The Federal Defenders office has experienced trial attorneys and investigators and achieves outcomes comparable to many private attorneys.

Don’t assume that public defenders are inferior—federal defender organizations are highly selective in hiring and their attorneys often have extensive federal criminal defense experience. However, they have large caseloads and may not be able to provide the same level of individualized attention that a private attorney can offer.

Warning signs of inadequate counsel: An attorney who has never tried a federal case. An attorney who primarily practices in state court. An attorney who quotes a flat fee that seems to good to be true (it is). An attorney who doesn’t ask detailed questions about your case. An attorney who hasn’t handled cases in SDNY or EDNY recently and doesn’t know the judges or prosecutors.

Federal criminal defense is hyperspecialized—the attorney who handled your real estate closing or your divorce is not qualified for federal court, regardless of how much you trust them in other contexts.

Sentencing in Federal Court: The Mathematics of Your Future

Federal sentencing is mathematical. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines provide a formula: base offense level + enhancements – reductions = final offense level. That final offense level, combined with your criminal history category, produces a guideline range in months.

This is your starting point for sentencing, though judges have discretion to depart from the guidelines based on various factors.

Here’s how it works in practice. Let’s say your charged with wire fraud. The base offense level for fraud is determined by the loss amount. A $1 million fraud starts at base offense level 20. Add 2 levels if you had more than 10 victims. Add 2 levels if you were an organizer or leader. Add 2 levels if you obstructed justice by destroying evidence or lying to investigators. That’s offense level 26.

Now subtract 3 levels for acceptance of responsibility if you plead guilty and genuinely accept responsibility for your conduct. That’s offense level 23. If you have no criminal history (criminal history category I), offense level 23 yields a guideline range of 46-57 months. This is your sentancing exposure.

But the math changes dramatically based on cooperation and trial outcomes. If you cooperate and the government files a 5K1.1 motion for substantial assistance, your 46-57 month range might become 24-36 months (a 40-50% reduction). If you go to trial and lose, you don’t get the 3-level acceptance of responsibility reduction, so your offense level stays at 26, which yields a guideline range of 63-78 months—significantly higher then the plea range.

The guidelines are advisory, not mandatory, since United States v. Booker in 2005. Judges consider the guideline range but also evaluate 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors: the nature and circumstances of the offense, your history and characteristics, the need for the sentance to reflect the seriousness of the offense, promote respect for the law, provide just punishment, afford adequate deterrence, protect the public, and provide you with needed educational or vocational training or medical care.

In practice, judges in SDNY and EDNY depart downward from the guidelines in approximately 52% of cases, with the average departure being 30% below the guideline range.

But some judges sentence above the guidelines, particularly in fraud cases involving vulnerable victims or where the loss amount was substantial. Your attorney should research your assigned judge’s sentencing history immediatly after assignment. Some SDNY judges consistently sentence 10-20% above the guidelines in fraud cases. Some judges are more defense-friendly and grant variances regularly.

The random wheel determines which judge you get, but your sentencing preparation should be tailored to that judge’s demonstrated tendencies.

In addition to imprisonment, federal sentances typically include supervised release (3-5 years of post-prison monitoring), restitution (repaying victims for their losses), fines (up to $250,000 for individuals in fraud cases), and possible forfeiture of assets. In a major fraud case, you might be sentenced to 48 months imprisonment, 3 years supervised release, $2.5 million restitution, a $50,000 fine, and forfeiture of your house and bank accounts.

The collateral consequences extend far beyond the prison sentence itself.

The sentance after trial is typically 25-40% longer than the plea offer because you loose the acceptance of responsibility reduction. This is sometimes called the “trial penalty,” though courts frame it as a “plea discount” for accepting responsibility. Regardless of the framing, the math is real: pleading guilty typically results in a sentance 25-30% lower then the sentance after trial conviction.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission publishes the Guidelines Manual and provides sentencing statistics by district and offense type. The Speedy Trial Act governs trial timing, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals hears appeals from both SDNY and EDNY, so Second Circuit sentencing precedents control how guidelines are applied in your case.

Moving Forward: The Weight of Federal Prosecution and the Agency You Still Have

Look, I’m not going to lie to you—the weight of federal prosecution is enormous. The fear you’re feeling is real and justified.

The stakes couldn’t be higher.

When you’re facing 10 years in federal prison, when the government has spent 2 years investigating you before you even knew you where a target, when the conviction rate is 93% and the U.S. Attorney’s Office has unlimited resources… yeah, you’re up against something that feels impossible to fight.

But—and this is crucial—you’re not powerless. Federal cases can be defended successfully. Charges can be dismissed based on statute of limitations defenses, lack of venue, insufficient evidence. Sentances can be reduced dramaticaly through cooperation, through downward departures, through effective sentencing advocacy.

The prosecution’s case isn’t always as strong as they want you to beleive. They offered you a plea deal because they’re worried about going to trial, or because they need your cooperation, or because they’re not confident in certain charges.

The defendants who fare best in federal court are those who act decisively in the first 72 hours. They hire experienced federal criminal defense counsel immediatly. They don’t speak to agents without their attorney. They preserve evidence that helps their case. They understand the decision points ahead and gather the information they need to make informed choices.

They research their assigned judge’s sentencing tendencies. They evaluate cooperation offers carefully with counsel who knows the prosecutors and can negotiate effectively. They prepare for detention hearings properly. They fund their defense adequately.

You’re reading this article at 2 AM because your scared and you need information. That’s actually a good sign—it means your taking this seriously and trying to understand what your facing.

Federal prosecution is the most serious legal threat most people will ever face, but its not the end of your story. The decisions you make starting now will determine how this story ends. You can’t control the charges. You can’t control the district where your prosecuted. You can’t control which judge you draw.

But you can control how you respond, who you hire, what decisions you make, and how you prepare your defense.

This guide has provided the intelligence you need about Manhattan federal court, about SDNY versus EDNY, about the decision points you face, about cooperation economics, about the real costs of defense, and about federal sentencing. Use this information to ask your attorney the right questions. Use it to evaluate plea offers realistically. Use it to understand the math of cooperation decisions.

Use it to prepare for what’s ahead.

The next 72 hours matter. The next 6 months matter. Every decision you make matters because federal cases are cumulative—early mistakes eliminate later options. But you have more agency then you think. Federal defendants beat these cases, or get charges reduced, or negotiate favorable sentences every day in Manhattan federal court.

Your not the first person to face this. You won’t be the last. The resources exist to defend you properly if you use them.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for SDNY is at One St. Andrew’s Plaza. The courthouse is at 500 Pearl Street. The Federal Defenders are at 52 Duane Street. Your attorney’s office is wherever you decide to hire counsel.

The next call you make should be to an experienced federal criminal defense attorney who practices regularly in SDNY or EDNY, who knows the judges and prosecutors, and who can guide you through the decision points ahead.

That call needs to happen today.