Are subpoenas public record?

The default: sealed and secret.

Grand jury materials - including subpoenas - are covered by Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e). Prosecutors, agents, and grand jurors are forbidden from disclosing them. The subpoena you receive is not filed on any public docket, does not appear in PACER, and the government cannot confirm its existence to a reporter. Trial subpoenas are different: once filed or litigated, they can surface on the docket.

Where secrecy leaks.

The recipient of a subpoena is generally not bound by 6(e) - a company served for your records can often tell you, and sometimes must. Banks and providers may notify customers unless a court gags them under 18 U.S.C. § 2705(b). Litigation over a subpoena - a motion to quash - creates a docket entry, though it is frequently sealed. And in civil and congressional practice, subpoenas are routinely public.

So the practical answer: your grand jury subpoena is secret from the public, but not necessarily from the people it touches. Whether your bank, employer, or provider tells you the government came asking depends on gag orders - and whether anyone thought to seek one.

Why the secrecy question matters.

If you learned about a subpoena from a third party, the investigation has been running longer than you think - and counsel can often learn its shape from what was requested and when. The request list is a map of the government’s theory. Reading that map early is one of the highest-value moves in federal defense.

What to do when one surfaces.

Do not call the agent to ask what it is about. Counsel contacts the prosecutor, confirms your status, and - if the subpoena went to third parties - inventories what the government already holds before you say a word. Quiet is an asset. We keep it that way.

THE AUTHOR

Todd A. Spodek

Managing partner. Second-generation federal defense lawyer - the Netflix defense, the Fox and CNN analyst chair, and two decades of federal courtrooms.

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