Refusal is not the right word. The Fifth Amendment is. A subpoena commanding grand jury testimony is a court order. Noncompliance, in the ordinary sense of simply declining to appear, is punishable as contempt.…
Yes. The answer has no asterisk. A citizen who is not under arrest has no legal obligation to speak with FBI agents. The Fifth Amendment's protection against compelled self-incrimination, the Fourth Amendment's protection against…
The legal answer varies by jurisdiction. The practical answer is more complicated than the legal one. The question of whether a private citizen may record a conversation with federal agents without the agents' knowledge…
Probation is available in federal court. The conditions under which it is available are more limited than most people entering the system understand. The federal sentencing guidelines divide sentences into zones that govern the…
Yes. The law permits it and the practice is common. Federal law enforcement agents may employ deception as an interrogative technique. They may falsely represent the strength of the evidence against a subject. They…
Bank fraud is among the most versatile and severe provisions in the federal financial crime statutes. The twenty-year maximum sentence, the ten-year limitations period, and the statute's breadth make it a charging instrument that…
The investigation does not announce itself. By the time most people ask the question, the answer has been yes for some time. Federal investigations proceed in secrecy by design. Grand jury proceedings are sealed.…
The indictment, in most cases, was not inevitable. What made it so was what happened in the weeks after the letter arrived. Federal investigations that produce target letters have typically been underway for months.…
The statute does not require a courtroom. It does not require an oath. It requires a false statement, a federal agent, and a matter within federal jurisdiction. 18 U.S.C. 1001 is among the most…
The statute criminalizes conduct that half the country performs before lunch. \n\n Section 1030 of Title 18 was enacted in 1986 to prosecute computer...