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Welcome to Spodek Law Group. We understand that if you’re reading this, federal agents probably just executed a search warrant at your home or business – and then left without arresting anyone. You’re sitting there right now trying to figure out what that means. Most people assume no arrest is good news. They feel relief. That relief is going to be dangerous for you, and heres why.
Federal prosecutors do not execute search warrants at the beginning of an investigation. They execute them when they’re 80-90% ready to indict you. The raid wasn’t the start of your problems – it was the evidence-gathering finale. The absence of arrest doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. It means they’re still building the case. They’re waiting on digital forensics. They might be targeting others connected to you first before coming back for you.
Think about it from the prosecutor’s perspective. Why would they show their hand with a dramatic raid and then walk away? They wouldn’t. Unless they needed something specific from your home or business to complete their case. That’s exactly what happened. And now you’re in a waiting period that could last months or even years. The question isnt whether charges are coming. The question is when – and what you should be doing right now to prepare.
The psychology here makes sense on a basic human level. Armed federal agents kicked in your door or showed up at 6am with a warrant. They went through your stuff for hours. Then they left. Your still standing in your own home. Your not in handcuffs. Your not being processed at a federal detention facility. The natural reaction is relief – you dodged something terrible.
Heres the problem with that thinking. Federal investigations dont work the way state cases do. When local police raid a drug house, they usually arrest people on the spot because there catching them in the act. Federal cases are different. The FBI and federal prosecutors build cases methodicaly over months or years before executing search warrants. By the time agents show up at your door, the investigation has been going on for a long time already.
The search warrant execution is typically one of the final steps in evidence gathering. According to federal criminal defense practioners, prosecutors are generaly 80-90% ready to indict when they execute a search warrant. They dont need to arrest you on the spot because they already know who you are and where to find you. Your not a flight risk in there minds yet – your a target who just gave them more evidence.
The relief you feel right now might be the most dangerous emotion you could have. It creates complacency. People who feel relieved dont hire lawyers immediatly. They dont start building defenses. They wait to see what happens. And while there waiting, federal agents are analyzing every file on there seized computers, every text message on there phones, every document they took from your home. The clock is ticking against you and you dont even realize it.
Heres a statistic that should reframe how your thinking about this situation. 99% of federal search warrants are executed before any charges are filed. Read that again. The raid happens first. Then charges come later. This isnt unusual – its the standard operating procedure for federal investigations.
Most people have the timeline completly backwards in there head. They think investigation starts, then arrest, then search. Thats how it works on TV crime shows. In real federal cases, the sequence is: investigation starts, evidence is gathered through subpoenas and surveillance and informants, then the search warrant gets executed to obtain final pieces of evidence, then the grand jury reviews everything, then indictment, then arrest. Your somewhere in the middle of that timeline right now. Not at the beginning. Not at the end.
The FBI’s description of the federal criminal process lays out these stages, but what it dosent tell you is how long each stage takes. After the search warrant execution, prosecutors typicaly take 30 to 90 days to analyze seized evidence and decide whether to proceed with charges. But thats the optimistic timeline. In cases involving digital evidence – which is basicly every case now – that timeline extends dramaticaly.
Think about what federal agents seized from your location. Computers. Phones. External hard drives. USB drives. Servers. All of that digital evidence goes to FBI or IRS-CI forensic labs for analysis. And those labs have massive backlogs. Were talking 6 to 12 months just for the initial forensic examination. During that entire period, your in limbo. The government is building its case against you while you wait in silence.
This is the part of federal investigations that most people dont understand untill there living through it. After the raid, your devices dissapear into the federal forensic system. And you hear nothing. For months. The silence is intentional, and its devastating if you dont know whats happening on the other end.
Federal forensic examiners are going through every file on every device they seized from you. There not just looking at documents you remember creating. There looking at deleted files. Metadata. Browser history going back years. Text messages you forgot you sent. Emails you thought were gone forever. Photos with GPS coordinates embedded. The digital footprint of your entire life is being reconstructed and analyzed for evidence of federal crimes.
Heres the thing about digital forensics that works against defendants. Modern forensic tools can recover data you thought was deleted years ago. They can see when files were created, when they were modified, when they were accessed. They can track what websites you visited, what searches you ran, who you communicated with. If there looking for evidence of wire fraud or tax evasion or conspiracy, they have basicly your entire life to search through.
The FBI uses specialized tools like EnCase and FTK (Forensic Toolkit) that can reconstruct entire hard drives. They can see files you deleted ten years ago if the sectors havent been overwritten. They can recover partial text messages. They can extract data from cloud backups linked to your devices. And increasingly, there using AI-powered analysis to identify patterns across massive amounts of data that human examiners would miss. Your digital life isnt just being reviewed – its being analyzed by software designed to find incriminating patterns.
And while this analysis is happening, you have no right to know what there finding. The government dosent have to tell you what evidence there building against you. There under no obligation to inform you about the status of the investigation. You just wait. And wait. And the anxiety builds. Meanwhile, every piece of incriminating evidence on those devices is being documented and cataloged for use at trial.
The lawyers at Spodek Law Group have represented clients through this exact waiting period. What we tell them is this: the forensic analysis period is actualy your most important window for building a defense. Because once the indictment comes down, your options narrow significantly. But before charges are filed, there are proactive steps an experienced federal defense attorney can take to potentially influence the prosecutions decision.
Let me show you what this waiting period looks like in real cases. Because understanding the timeline helps you understand whats probably happening in your situation right now.
In January 2022, the FBI raided the home and offices of Congressman Henry Cuellar in Laredo, Texas. It was a dramatic raid that made national news. Agents removed computers, documents, and other materials. And then… nothing. For over a year. A year later, as reported by the Texas Tribune, there were still no arrests and no answers about what the investigation was actualy about. Cuellar maintained publicly that he wasnt the target and would be cleared. But the investigation continued in silence. Eventually, in May 2024 – more then two years after the raid – Cuellar was indicted on federal charges including bribery and money laundering.
Similar pattern with Rudy Giuliani. Federal agents raided his home and office in April 2021. One year later, still no charges, but the investigation continued. The probe into whether he illegally lobbied on behalf of Ukrainian interests stretched on for years. During that entire period, Giuliani couldnt know whether he would eventually be charged or not. His legal bills mounted. His public reputation remained in limbo. Every statement he made publicly could potentially be used against him later. Thats the reality of post-raid life when charges dont come immediately.
Most recently, in November 2024, FBI agents raided the apartment of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan. They seized his phone and other devices. He wasnt arrested. He hasnt been charged. The investigation is ongoing. Hes living in that same limbo your experiencing right now.
The pattern should be clear. FBI raid. No immediate arrest. Long period of silence. Then, often, charges come down months or years later. The absence of arrest doesnt mean exoneration. It means the investigation is continuing. And in every one of these cases, the targets thought the silence meant good news. They were wrong.
Heres why federal prosecutors can afford to wait and build there case carefully. Once they decide to indict you, your probably going to be convicted. Federal prosecutors have a conviction rate of 99.5%. Thats not a typo. Ninety-nine point five percent of federal defendants are convicted, either through guilty plea or trial verdict.
This conviction rate exists because federal prosecutors dont file charges unless there almost completly certain of conviction. Unlike state prosecutors who might charge cases with shakier evidence and see what happens at trial, federal prosecutors are selective. They build overwhelming cases before filing. They wait until the evidence is iron-clad. Then they indict.
What this means for you: the fact that your not charged yet might actualy be bad news. It means prosecutors are still working to get their conviction rate from 90% certain to 99% certain on your case. There filling in gaps. There making sure every piece of evidence is solid. There waiting for forensic results. There interviewing additional witnesses. All of this activity is happening while you sit at home wondering what the silence means.
When federal prosecutors are ready to charge you, they will charge you. The timing isnt in your favor. The statistics arent in your favor. The only thing that can shift these odds is aggressive pre-indictment defense work by an attorney who understands how federal cases are built.
One of the first questions people ask after an FBI raid is how to get there property back. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(g) allows you to file a motion for return of seized property. But theres a catch that most people dont understand until its too late.
Rule 41 motions only succeed if your never going to be charged. If prosecutors are planning to indict you, the court will deny your motion because the seized items are evidence in an ongoing investigation. So heres the irony: if your Rule 41(g) motion gets granted and you get your stuff back, it probably means your not getting charged. But if the motion is denied, it signals that the government still considers you a target.
Some attorneys actualy advise against filing Rule 41(g) motions prematurly for this exact reason. Filing too early can tip off the defense about the status of the investigation. And it can also annoy federal judges who dont appreciate premature motions clogging there docket.
The realistic timeline for property return if your not charged varies. If the government concludes its investigation and decides not to pursue charges, they may return your property after several months. But they can also hold it indefinitly as potential evidence in related investigations. There’s cases where seized property has been held for years even when no charges were ever filed against the property owner.
Attorney Todd Spodek has handled numerous cases involving post-raid representation. One of the first things we evaluate is whether attempting property recovery makes strategic sense or whether it could backfire on the overall defense.
People assume that if they havnt been charged within a reasonable time after the raid, there safe. This assumption ignores how federal statutes of limitations actualy work.
For most federal crimes, the government has five years from the date of the offense to file charges. Not five years from the raid – five years from when the crime was allegedly commited. For certain offenses, the limitations period is even longer. Bank fraud has a ten year statute of limitations. Immigration violations and arson also have ten year windows. And for some crimes, theres effectively no statute of limitations at all.
What this means practicaly: even if two or three years pass after your raid with no charges, your still not safe. If the alleged offense occured within the limitations period, prosecutors can still indict you. The raid simply provided them with more evidence. Now there building the strongest possible case within the time they have.
Living in this legal limbo is one of the most psychologicaly difficult aspects of being a target of federal investigation. You cant move on with your life. You cant make long-term plans. Every time the phone rings or someone knocks on your door, you wonder if this is it. The anxiety compounds over months and years. And theres nothing you can do to force the government to either charge you or publicly clear you.
People in this situation often describe it as worse then being charged. At least when your charged, you know what your facing. You can prepare. You have discovery rights. You can see the evidence against you. But in the pre-indictment waiting period, your fighting shadows. You dont know what there looking at. You dont know what there finding on your devices. You dont know if other people in your life are cooperating against you. The uncertainty is its own form of punishment, and prosecutors know this. Some attorneys beleive prosecutors use this uncertainty strategicaly to pressure targets into cooperation.
Federal prosecutors are under no legal obligation to announce that a case is closed. They can simply stop investigating and never tell you. You could spend years wondering about charges that were never actualy coming. Or you could relax after a year of silence and then get indicted out of nowhere. The uncertainty is a feature of the system, not a bug.
If you’ve read this far, you understand that the absence of arrest during an FBI raid is not good news. It’s a warning signal. The question is what you do about it. Most people wait to see what happens. That’s the worst possible approach.
The period between the raid and potential indictment is your most critical window for defense. Once charges are filed, the case enters the formal court system with strict timelines and limited options. But before indictment, an experienced federal defense attorney can potentially influence the prosecutors decision. This isnt guarenteed, but its your best shot at avoiding charges entirely.
What proactive pre-indictment defense looks like varies by case. In some situations, its appropriate to reach out to prosecutors through defense counsel to provide exculpatory information. Prosecutors sometimes decline to charge when they realize there explanation for the evidence. In others, its better to remain silent and force the government to build its case without your help. There are also cases where a proffer agreement makes sense – where you provide information to prosecutors in exchange for potential immunity or reduced charges. The right strategy depends on the specific facts of your case, what was seized during the raid, and what the investigation seems to be about.
What you should definitly do right now: consult with a federal criminal defense attorney. Not a general practioner who handles DUIs and divorces. A lawyer who specifically handles federal cases and understands how federal investigations work. The consultation should happen immediately – not next week, not next month, not when you see what happens.
At Spodek Law Group, we offer consultations for people in exactly your situation. Call 212-300-5196 to speak with someone who understands what your facing. The waiting period after an FBI raid is not the time for relief – it’s the time for aggressive preparation. The prosecutors are using this time to build there case. You should be using it to build your defense.
Very diligent, organized associates; got my case dismissed. Hard working attorneys who can put up with your anxiousness. I was accused of robbing a gemstone dealer. Definitely A law group that lays out all possible options and best alternative routes. Recommended for sure.
- ROBIN, GUN CHARGES ROBIN
NJ CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEYS