Charged in one system, punished in two.
Illegal reentry, harboring, document counts - federal prosecutions where the sentence is followed by removal. The defense has to fight both outcomes at once.
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.
A biometric hit and an old removal order - we audit the underlying file before the reentry case gets comfortable.
Attack the removal under §1326(d), contest alienage and identity - and try what the government’s aging paperwork cannot carry.
Federal immigration prosecutions carry a double penalty: the sentence, then removal. Reentry cases turn on the validity of the original deportation order - attack it and the count can fall. Harboring and document cases turn on knowledge and intent. We defend the criminal case and plan the immigration consequences together, because winning one and losing the other is not a win.
Charged at the border, built in the database.
Illegal reentry and smuggling cases are assembled from A-files, biometric hits, and prior removal orders the government treats as untouchable. They are not: a defective removal order is a defense to the reentry count. We audit the underlying proceedings first, because the indictment inherits their flaws.
§2L1.2 runs on your past.
The reentry guideline stacks levels for prior sentences, and fast-track districts trade acceptance for speed. Criminal-history litigation matters twice here - once in the category, again in the enhancement. Points knocked out move the range on both axes.
Attack the removal, defeat the reentry.
A §1326(d) collateral attack on the original removal - no notice, no hearing, counsel denied - ends the case. Citizenship claims, duress at the border, and official-restraint doctrine are live defenses. The government’s paperwork is old; age makes proof problems.
Reentry, smuggling, and the paper record.
§1326 reentry runs from two years to twenty depending on the priors; §1324 smuggling climbs to ten per person, more where danger or death is alleged; visa and marriage fraud add five and ten-year counts through §1546 and §1325(c). The government’s case is a file: A-file, removal order, fingerprints. §1326(d) lets us attack the removal order underneath - and when the original hearing was defective, the felony collapses with it.
Before ICE and the AUSA compare notes.
Get the A-file through counsel immediately; it holds the removal defects we litigate. Say nothing about entry dates or documents - alienage and identity are elements the government must prove, not facts to concede at booking. Family with status should consult an immigration lawyer in parallel; criminal pleas here carry consequences that Padilla makes counsel’s duty to map before any deal is signed.
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 -
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