Criminal Defense Lawyers

Texas Federal Criminal Defense Lawyers

Texas Federal Criminal Defense Lawyers

Welcome to Spodek Law Group. If federal agents have contacted you in Texas, you need to understand something that most people – and alot of defense attorneys – dont fully grasp. Texas isnt one federal court system. Its four separate prosecution machines, each with different priorities, different judges, and completely different ways there going to come after you. Which district gets your case matters more than what you actually did.

Everyone assumes federal court works the same everywhere. Same rules, same procedures, same outcomes. But Texas has four federal judicial districts operating like separate kingdoms. The Southern District in Houston runs like a border-enforcement assembly line with judges handling triple the national caseload. The Northern District in Dallas specializes in white-collar prosecutions with Assistant U.S. Attorneys who came from BigLaw firms and know exactly how to dismantle the defenses they used to build. The Western District prosecutes massive rural drug conspiracies with mandatory life sentences. The Eastern District has judges appointed decades apart with completely different sentencing philosophies – getting assigned to the wrong judge is literally a lottery that determines years of your life. Which district gets jurisdiction – often decided by where you were arrested or were one email was sent – shapes everything that follows more than the facts of your case.

At Spodek Law Group, we’ve represented clients in federal courts across the country, including all four Texas districts. Call 212-300-5196. We’ll give you an honest assessment of which system your facing and what that actually means.

Four Districts, Four Different Courtrooms

Heres what the map wont tell you. Texas is divided geographicaly into four federal judicial districts, but they operate less like branches of one system and more like competing law firms with different specialties.

The Northern District of Texas covers Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas. This district has earned a reputation – deserved – as the white-collar prosecution capital of the state. The U.S. Attorneys Office in Dallas prioritizes healthcare fraud, securities violations, PPP loan fraud, and corporate crime. Many of the AUSAs in this district came from large civil firms. There not career prosecutors who started in state court. There sophisticated lawyers who chose prosecution after building corporate defense practices, and they know every technical defense your going to try becuase they used to make those same arguments for clients. If your facing federal charges in the Northern District, understand your dealing with prosecutors who think like defense attorneys and have spent years learning to counter there own previous strategies.

The Southern District of Texas is different. Completly different. This district covers Houston, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, Laredo, and the entire Gulf Coast and border region. Its the busiest federal district in Texas by an enormous margin. The Southern District processes over 10,000 criminal defendants per year – more than entire states handle. Judges in Houston are managing 400+ cases each compared to 120-150 in smaller districts. The prosecution priorities here are border crimes, drug trafficking, immigration violations, and anything connected to Mexican cartels. Volume shapes everything in this district. Your “individual” case is one of hundreds moving through the system simultaneously, and judges dont have time for lengthy motions practice or extended trials.

The Western District of Texas spans San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, Del Rio, and everything west of Interstate 35. This district sits directly on the border and handles massive drug conspiracy prosecutions – were talking cases with 30+ defendants, multi-kilogram quantities, and mandatory minimum sentences that start at 10 years and go up to life. Federal prosecutors in the Western District are particularly aggressive about stacking charges and using firearm enhancements to increase mandatory minimums. A drug case that might get 5-7 years in another district can become a 20-year mandatory minimum in Western Texas if prosecutors add a gun charge or a border enhancement.

The Eastern District of Texas covers everything from Tyler to Beaumont to Texarkana. This district is smaller in caseload but has something else that creates unpredictability: judicial philosophical diversity. The Eastern District has judges appointed in different presidential administrations spanning decades, and sentencing philosophy has shifted dramaticaly over that time. You could get randomly assigned to a judge appointed in the 1990s who still believes in tough mandatory sentences, or a judge appointed in the 2020s whos more receptive to mitigating arguments. Same crime, same guidelines calculation – completely different outcomes based on random assignment.

Thats the reality. Four separate systems inside one state.

The Southern District Assembly Line

Lets talk about volume. Because most federal court content talks about careful deliberation, thorough investigation, and individualized justice. And then theres the Southern District of Texas.

The numbers are staggering. The Southern District processes more federal criminal defendants than most states entire federal court systems combined. Were talking about 10,000+ defendants per year flowing through Houston, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, Laredo, McAllen, and Galveston divisions. Federal judges who are supposed to handle maybe 150 cases annually are managing 400+. The national average for federal criminal cases per judgeship is around 120. Southern District judges are handling three times that.

What does that mean for you? Assembly line justice. Even in federal court.

Your case isnt getting the careful attention you imagine when you think “federal prosecution.” Your not getting a prosecutor whos spent months focusing solely on your file. Your getting an AUSA managing 80 active cases who has maybe two hours total to spend on yours before the arraignment. Your not getting a judge who’s read your entire motion – your getting a judge who has six other hearings that morning and needs to move things along. The courtroom deputy is scheduling trials months out because the docket is completely jammed.

This creates pressure. Enormous pressure to plead. Prosecutors in the Southern District offer worse plea deals than other districts because they know you cant afford to wait. You want a trial? Great. Youll wait 18-24 months in pretrial detention while they process the backlog. You want to file motions? The judge has 47 pending motions from other cases and yours is at the bottom of the stack. The system is designed – not intentionaly, but through sheer volume – to make fighting your case so costly in time and uncertainty that pleading becomes the only rational option.

Federal judicial statistics show that Southern District judges are among the most overworked in the nation. And when judges are overworked, outcomes change. Sentencing hearings get shorter. Mitigating evidence gets less attention. Variances get harder to obtain becuase the judge simply doesnt have time to craft a lengthy written explanation for departing from the guidelines.

The conviction rate in the Southern District – like all federal districts – hovers above 99% when you count guilty pleas. But the speed of those convictions is whats different here. Cases move faster becuase they have to. Justice becomes efficient. And efficient justice is rarely individualized justice.

Border Crimes and the Geography Tax

Heres something that makes no logical sense until you understand how the system actually works. Two people commit the exact same crime – same drug quantity, same conduct, same criminal history. One gets arrested in Dallas. One gets arrested in McAllen. The McAllen defendant is looking at 10+ years more prison time. Why? Geography.

The federal sentencing guidelines include something called a “border enhancement.” If your offense occured within a certain distance of the international border – and prosecutors can prove it involved international trafficking – your base offense level increases. That increase translates directly into years. A drug trafficking case that would generate a 10-year mandatory minimum in Northern Texas becomes a 20-year mandatory minimum in the Southern or Western Districts if prosecutors apply the border enhancement.

The sentencing guidelines explicitly authorize higher offense levels for crimes involving importation or exportation. But heres the trap: prosecutors have discretion about whether to charge the enhancement. And in border districts, they charge it constantly. Its standard practice. An AUSA in McAllen or Del Rio or Laredo sees drug quantities and immediately thinks international trafficking becuase of where they work. An AUSA in Dallas sees the same quantity and thinks local distribution. The crime is identical. The mandatory minimum doubles.

This isnt theoretical. Practitioners in border districts deal with this every single day. A defendant with no prior record caught with 5 kilograms of cocaine in Houston might face 10 years mandatory minimum. The same defendant with the same quantity caught in Laredo faces 20 years becuase of where the arrest happened. The guidelines calculation is different. The plea offers are worse. The pressure to cooperate and provide information about suppliers is overwhelming becuase cooperation is the only way to escape the enhanced mandatory minimum.

And cooperation in border districts means something specific: information about cartel operations. The feds dont want information about your local distribution network. They want names, routes, suppliers connected to Sinaloa or Jalisco New Generation or Gulf Cartel operations. If you cant provide that – if your just a low-level player who doesnt have access to that information – your cooperation has limited value, and your stuck with the enhanced sentence.

The geography tax applies to other crimes too. Immigration violations prosecuted in Western or Southern Districts get harsher treatment than the rare immigration case in Northern or Eastern Districts. Firearms offenses near the border get stacked with drug charges more aggressively. Money laundering cases involving wire transfers to Mexico generate higher guideline ranges than identical domestic money laundering.

You didnt commit a worse crime. You committed it in the wrong place.

Why Northern District White-Collar Cases Hit Different

If your a doctor, business owner, healthcare provider, or corporate executive facing federal charges in Dallas or Fort Worth, you need to understand who your actually up against.

The Northern District U.S. Attorneys Office has built something like a specialty practice. The Northern District Healthcare Fraud Task Force operates out of Dallas with dedicated prosecutors, FBI agents assigned full-time to healthcare cases, and forensic accountants who do nothing but analyze medical billing patterns. These arent general criminal prosecutors handling whatever comes in. These are specialists.

And heres the uncomfortable part for defendants: many of the AUSAs in the Northern Districts white-collar section came from big civil defense firms. They spent years at Haynes Boone or Thompson & Knight or Baker Botts representing corporations and healthcare providers in civil fraud investigations. They know the defenses. They’ve made those arguments themselves. They know which expert witnesses defense firms hire becuase they used to hire those same experts. They know which mitigating narratives work and which ones judges see through immediately.

When you hire a federal defense attorney to argue that your billing was within the standard of care for your specialty, the AUSA across the table might have made that exact argument five years ago when they were in private practice. They know how to dismantle it. They know which questions to ask your expert on cross-examination. They know which case law you’ll cite becuase they used to cite it.

The Northern District also has a particular focus on PPP loan fraud and COVID-related financial crimes. During 2020-2022, federal prosecutors in Dallas charged hundreds of defendants with fraudulently obtaining Paycheck Protection Program loans, Economic Injury Disaster Loans, and other pandemic relief funds. The government has nearly unlimited resources to track every dollar. They supoena bank records going back years. They interview employees. They compare your PPP application against your tax returns, payroll records, and state filings looking for any inconsistency. One false statement on a loan application – even a statement you didnt personally make but your accountant included – becomes a federal felony with a guidelines range of 18-24 months minimum.

Securities fraud and investment scheme cases in the Northern District get similar treatment. The AUSAs working these cases understand complex financial instruments. There not going to be confused by your defense attorneys explanation of how the investment structure worked. There not going to be intimidated by technical jargon. They came from firms where they did securities work, and now there using that knowledge to prosecute.

The conviction rate is the same as everywhere else – above 99% with pleas. But the path to that conviction is different in Northern District white-collar cases. Prosecutors build meticulous cases. They dont rush. They wait until they have overwhelming evidence before bringing charges. By the time you recieve a target letter from the Northern District for a healthcare fraud or securities case, theyve often been investigating for 2-3 years. They already have your complete financial records. Theyve already interviewed former employees. Theyve already retained there experts. Your not getting indicted on a weak case.

The Judicial Philosophy Lottery in East Texas

Random chance shouldnt determine whether you get 5 years or 15 years for the exact same crime. But in the Eastern District of Texas, thats exactly what happens.

The Eastern District is smaller in caseload than Southern or Northern Districts, but it has something that creates wild unpredictability: judges appointed across multiple decades with fundamentaly different views on sentencing. The Eastern District currently has active judges appointed in the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s. Sentencing philosophy in federal courts has shifted dramatically over that span. Judges appointed during tough-on-crime eras tend to sentence at the top of guideline ranges and deny variances. Judges appointed more recently – after sentencing reform movements and First Step Act – tend to be more receptive to mitigating arguments and below-guidelines sentences.

You dont get to pick your judge. Its random assignment. The clerk’s office uses a computerized system that assigns cases to judges as they come in. You could get Judge A who’s been on the bench for 25 years and has never granted a variance in a drug case. Or you could get Judge B who’s been on the bench for 3 years and regularly sentences below the guidelines when presented with compelling mitigation. Same crime, same criminal history, same guidelines calculation – 10 years versus 5 years based purely on random assignment.

Defense attorneys in the Eastern District know exactly which judges are which. They track sentencing patterns. They know which judges are receptive to cooperation departures and which judges dont care how much you helped the government. They know which judges will let you self-surrender after sentencing and which judges remand immediately. They know which judges actually read sentencing memoranda and which judges have already decided before the hearing starts.

But you cant judge-shop. The case is assigned when its filed. Your stuck with whoever you get.

This creates a perverse dynamic were two defendants charged in nearly identical cases can have completly different experiences based on nothing but luck. One defendant gets a judge who grants a two-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility, grants a minor role adjustment, and varies downward based on family circumstances. Another defendant with identical facts gets a judge who calculates the guidelines mechanically and sentences at the top of the range. Both defendants had the same attorney, made the same arguments, presented the same mitigation. Different outcomes becuase of random assignment.

The Eastern District also has venue rules that mean your case could be prosecuted in Tyler, Beaumont, Sherman, or Texarkana depending on where the offense occured. Each division has different judges with different reputations. Getting your case assigned to the wrong division – and wrong judge within that division – can add years to your sentence through no fault of your own or your attorney’s.

Federal law prohibits forum shopping. Prosecutors have some discretion about where to bring charges if a crime touches multiple jurisdictions, but defendants dont get that choice. You go where the government files the case. And then you hope the random assignment works in your favor.

What Actually Works When You Cant Pick Your Kingdom

After everything Ive described – four separate systems, assembly-line justice in Houston, geography determining mandatory minimums, Big Law prosecutors in Dallas, random judge assignment in East Texas – you might be wondering what actually helps.

First, early intervention before charges are filed. If your under investigation but havent been indicted yet, an experienced federal attorney can sometimes prevent charges entirely. They can reach out to the AUSA, provide mitigating information, present evidence that undermines the governments theory, and shape the narrative before the prosecution commits to an indictment. Once your indicted, the leverage shifts enormously against you. Federal prosecutors dont like dismissing cases after theyve publicly filed charges. Pre-indictment is when you have maximum flexibility.

Second, understanding the specific district and judges matters enormously. An attorney who’s appeared before the judge assigned to your case, who knows how that judge handles sentencing, who understands the local AUSA office culture – that institutional knowledge is invaluable. What works in Northern District white-collar cases doesnt work in Southern District border prosecutions. The arguments that resonate with Judge A in Tyler fall flat with Judge B in Houston. Generic federal defense doesnt cut it. You need someone who knows the specific system your in.

Third, cooperation strategy requires sophisticated analysis. In Texas border districts, cooperation often means providing information about cartel suppliers and distribution networks. In Northern District healthcare cases, cooperation might mean testifying against co-conspirators in a billing scheme. But cooperation done wrong destroys your case. Profferring too early – before your attorney has fully investigated what the government actually has – can lock you into statements that later become problems. You need an attorney who understands when cooperation makes sense, what information has actual value to prosecutors, and how to structure proffer agreements that protect you if cooperation falls through.

Fourth, sentencing is were experienced attorneys earn there value. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines are incredibly complex. Calculating offense levels, adjustments, departures, variances – this requires technical expertise and deep familiarity with case law. The difference between a guidelines sentence and a below-guidelines variance can be 5-10 years of your life. A skilled attorney knows which mitigating factors actually move judges, how to present cooperation in the most compelling way, and when to argue for specific variances based on individual circumstances.

Todd Spodek has represented clients in federal courts across the country, including complex cases in all four Texas districts. We understand that federal defense isnt about dramatic courtroom moments. Its about meticulous preperation, strategic positioning, and knowing exactly when to fight and when to negotiate. We know which arguments work in which districts. We understand how different judges approach sentencing. We’ve handled border prosecutions, white-collar cases, drug conspiracies, and every category of federal crime.

If your facing federal charges in Texas – or if federal agents have contacted you and charges seem likely – dont wait. The government has been building there case for months or years while you knew nothing. Every day you delay is a day they get stronger and your options narrow. Call Spodek Law Group at 212-300-5196 for a consultation. We’ll give you an honest assessment of were you stand, which district system your facing, and what your options actually are.

Federal court in Texas isnt one system. Its four. Which one you landed in matters. What you do next matters more.