An accusation is not the last word.
Federal sex-crime prosecutions carry registration, mandatory minimums, and a presumption of guilt in the public square. The defense must be technical, fearless, and discreet.
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.
An NCMEC referral or a sting file - counsel engages before the interview that charges the case.
Suppress the search, retain our own examiners, fight the charge selection that sets the floor - and try identity and intent when trial is the advantage.
These cases are prosecuted with maximum resources and judged - publicly - before any evidence is heard. The defense answers with discipline: forensic challenges to devices and accounts, attacks on interviews and identifications, and litigation over what the government can actually prove. Handled with total discretion, from the first call.
Charged on testimony, corroborated by devices.
Federal sex-crime prosecutions pair accuser testimony with digital forensics: messages, location data, search history. NCMEC tips and sting operations open most files. The forensic story has seams - recovered deletions without context, chats without identity - and the defense lives in those seams.
Minimums, registries, and the rest of your life.
Several counts carry ten or fifteen-year floors, and every conviction carries registration that outlasts the sentence. Charge selection is therefore the whole war - what count, what element, what floor. We engage prosecutors on charging before indictment whenever the door is open even an inch.
Consent, identity, and the sting that went too far.
Age knowledge, entrapment in decoy operations, and identity behind an account are triable issues. Forensic examiners overstate; we retain our own. And the rules of evidence protect the accused too - when counsel knows how to use them.
The federal overlay.
Chapter 117 travel offenses - §2422 enticement carries a ten-year minimum - sit alongside §2251 production (fifteen-year minimum) and §1591 trafficking, with SORNA registration and supervised release for decades or life attached to any conviction. Sting cases fill this docket: task-force officers posing online, with entrapment and “real minor” doctrines that vary by circuit in ways that decide cases. Charge bargaining here moves floors, not levels - it is the most consequential negotiation in federal practice.
Immediately, and quietly.
Preserve devices and accounts unchanged; deletions become new counts. No contact with any complaining witness or account, direct or through others. A private psychosexual evaluation, done early through counsel under privilege, informs strategy and - where appropriate - reframes sentencing. And treat every knock as recorded: the post-search “just talk” interview is where these cases actually get charged.
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.
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.
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.
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.
On the record, on the wire.
Get ahead of the case.
Answered within 24 hours, guaranteed. Some stories are better told out loud -
212 300 5196