The most stigmatized charge demands the most disciplined defense.
These prosecutions move on forensics - devices, networks, downloads - and forensics can be wrong. Discretion, science, and early counsel decide what happens next.
Netflix told the story. The defense was ours.
When Shonda Rhimes built Inventing Anna, the defense at its center was Todd Spodek’s - argued for the so-called fake heiress in a Manhattan courtroom long before Arian Moayed of Succession played him on screen. What 320 million hours of viewers watched is the method every client of this firm gets, in every federal district.
The record, dated and sourced.
How your case unfolds.
THE FULL PROCESS →Risk-free, in person or by phone. Ask anything, for as long as it takes. Strategy starts the same day.
The dawn search, the device seizure, the first interview request - counsel steps in before a word is given, and fights for release conditions you can live under.
Suppress the warrant, retest the forensics, fight the receipt-versus-possession charging call - the five-year floor is the battle, and we fight it early.
No charge carries more stigma, and none is more dependent on digital forensics. Who used the device, what was knowingly possessed, how the search was conducted - these are technical questions with legal answers. We work with independent forensic experts, challenge the warrant and the search, and defend the person behind the accusation with total discretion.
A digital case with a human defense.
These prosecutions start with a hash value, an IP address, and a search warrant executed at dawn. The forensic report reads like certainty - until you learn what peer-to-peer software does without a user’s knowledge, who else touched the device, and what the metadata actually shows. We bring our own forensic experts to every file.
The guideline every judge distrusts.
§2G2.2 stacks enhancements that apply in nearly every case - computer use, image counts, distribution - which is why federal judges vary below it more than any guideline in the book. Receipt carries a five-year minimum; possession carries none; the charging decision is the sentence. We fight that decision first.
Knowledge, access, and the machine.
The government must prove you knowingly possessed or received the material - not that a device in your house contains it. Shared networks, malware, cached files, and multi-user computers defeat knowledge; suppression defeats the search itself. Every element gets tested before any plea is discussed.
The counts and the floors.
§2252 and §2252A separate possession (up to ten years, twenty with priors) from receipt and distribution (five-year minimum, twenty maximum); production under §2251 carries a fifteen-year minimum. The line between possession and receipt is thinner than a download folder - and prosecutors choose. Restitution under Paroline, registration under SORNA, and supervised-release terms up to life follow any conviction; the sentence is never just the sentence.
Before the forensic report becomes gospel.
Do not consent to any further device searches, change no passwords, and delete nothing - deletions become obstruction counts. The defense examiner needs the same forensic images the government has, and needs them early: carving artifacts, thumbnail caches, and automated syncing produce “possession” no human chose. Treatment, evaluated early and privately through counsel, both helps you and changes sentencing outcomes.
Todd A. Spodek is a second-generation trial lawyer whose defense of Anna Delvey became Netflix's Inventing Anna. He appears on Fox News and CNN as a legal analyst, authored "My Advice to Diddy" in The Spectator, and is quoted by the Associated Press when the biggest federal cases break. The record behind the profile: a complete acquittal in a $26M money-laundering trial, RICO charges carrying a 10-year minimum dismissed, and 6 months on a $12M Ponzi case.
See who fights for you before you ever call.
Who we are, how we work, and why clients nationwide trust us with their future - in under a minute.
Why this firm.
Five decades of federal courtrooms. Whatever the government has charged, this firm has defended it before.
No allegiance to U.S. Attorneys, agents, or agencies. The client is the only constituency.
Every district in the country, one client portal - documents, invoices, counsel, in real time.
We decline more federal matters than we accept - and every accepted case gets the whole bench.
Know who is on the other side.
The first 72 hours decide the next 72 weeks.
No interviews, no consents, no explaining, no deleting. The words said in hour zero are the exhibits at trial. Write down what was asked and by whom - then stop.
Privilege attaches, facts get mapped while memory is fresh, documents get preserved the right way, and nobody in your orbit talks to agents unrepresented again.
We contact the government as your counsel: target, subject, or witness gets confirmed, deadlines get calendared, and the defense - not the investigation - sets the tempo.
On the record, on the wire.
Get ahead of the case.
Answered within 24 hours, guaranteed. Some stories are better told out loud -
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