NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED FEDERAL LAWYERS
What is threatening witness charges
|Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group – a second-generation law firm managed by Todd Spodek, with over 40 years of combined experience. We’ve handled cases that others said were unwinnable, cases that made national headlines – like representing Anna Delvey in the case that became a Netflix series, handling the juror misconduct issue in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial, and defending clients in the Alec Baldwin stalking matter. If you’re reading this, you or someone you care about is probably facing serious allegations involving witness intimidation or threats, and you need to understand exactly what the federal government can prove against you.
Threatening a witness is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. § 1512 that prosecutors treat as an attack on the justice system itself. The maximum penalty is 20 years in federal prison if you threatened physical force, 30 years if you used physical force, and life imprisonment if someone died. What makes this charge particularly dangerous – you don’t need to have actually influenced the witness. The attempt alone is the crime. Federal prosecutors in 2025 are pursuing these cases aggressively, and the sentences reflect that priority.
What Counts as Threatening a Witness Under Federal Law
The statute covers more than just direct threats. According to DOJ guidelines, prosecutors can charge you if you “knowingly use intimidation, threaten, or corruptly persuade another person” with intent to influence testimony in an official proceeding. That language is deliberately broad.
Intimidation doesn’t require explicit threats – implied threats work too. Tell a witness “it would be unfortunate if something happened to your family” and federal prosecutors will argue that’s witness tampering. The government doesn’t need to prove the witness was actually scared, just that a reasonable person would find your conduct intimidating.
The official proceeding doesn’t need to be pending yet. You can be charged for threatening someone about testimony in a case that hasn’t even been filed. If FBI agents are investigating and you threaten a potential witness, you’ve committed the crime even though no indictment exists.
Federal Penalties for Witness Threats Depend on Your Conduct
The sentencing range under 18 USC 1512 varies dramatically based on what you actually did.
Threats of physical force carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Nathanael Michael West was sentenced to 96 months (8 years) in July 2025 for threatening to murder a federal judge and prosecutor. West mailed threatening communications – and he got 8 years.
Actual physical force – the maximum jumps to 30 years. Shaquiel Anthony Mendez was convicted in December 2024 of conspiracy to tamper with a witness after the witness was “assaulted and stabbed with a pencil in the Cass County jail” during a murder investigation. Mendez faces sentencing in April 2025.
If you killed the witness, you’re looking at life imprisonment. Even harassment without threats of force carries up to 3 years – still a felony conviction with federal prison time.
Prosecutors Don’t Need to Prove the Threat Worked
Federal law makes witness tampering a crime even if you failed completely. The witness can testify anyway, can refuse to be intimidated, can immediately report you to law enforcement. Doesn’t matter. The crime is the attempt to interfere with the judicial process, not the result.
Alberico Ahias Crespo, a federal agent with HHS-OIG, was convicted in 2023 of three counts of witness tampering for protecting an Oxycodone trafficking scheme. He coached his friend on how to lie to investigators. Crespo faced up to 20 years per count – even though investigators ultimately discovered the scheme. His efforts to tamper with witnesses failed, but the conviction stood because the law punishes the conduct, not the outcome.
Federal judges use the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines to calculate prison time. Witness tampering gets enhanced if you used violence, if the tampering was extensive, if you obstructed a criminal investigation. Threatening a witness often results in pretrial detention – judges view you as a danger to the community.
What Makes Federal Prosecutors Pursue These Cases
Witness tampering strikes at the heart of the judicial system. Federal prosecutors view these cases as defending the integrity of trials, grand juries, and investigations. When someone threatens a witness, they’re attacking the government’s ability to prosecute crime and resolve disputes.
DOJ has made witness protection and anti-tampering enforcement a priority in 2025, particularly in organized crime cases, drug trafficking prosecutions, and public corruption investigations where witness cooperation is essential. If you’re charged with an underlying crime – drug distribution, fraud, robbery – and you also threaten a witness, federal prosecutors will add the witness tampering charge to increase your sentencing exposure and pressure you into a plea agreement.
The cases federal prosecutors pursued in 2024-2025 show the range of conduct they target. West threatened a judge. Mendez was involved in assaulting a witness in jail. Crespo used his position as a federal agent to obstruct investigations. A Providence VA service representative admitted to extortion, bribery, and witness tampering charges in 2025. These aren’t fringe cases – this is mainstream federal prosecution.
Your Defense Options Are Limited But Not Nonexistent
Intent is an element prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt. You can’t be convicted if you didn’t know the person was a witness, didn’t know a proceeding was foreseeable, or didn’t intend to influence their testimony. Sometimes statements that sound threatening in hindsight were actually innocent – telling someone “you should talk to a lawyer before testifying” is legal advice, not witness tampering.
The statement must relate to an official proceeding – proceedings before Congress, executive departments, administrative agencies, or judicial proceedings including grand juries. If prosecutors can’t establish that a proceeding was foreseeable, the charge fails.
Timing matters. Defense attorneys challenge the government’s timeline – when did the investigation begin? When did you become aware of it? If you said something before the investigation started, that generally isn’t witness tampering unless prosecutors prove the proceeding was already foreseeable.
At Spodek Law Group, we’ve handled federal obstruction and tampering cases where prosecutors overreached – where statements were taken out of context, where the government couldn’t prove intent. Our managing partner Todd Spodek is a second-generation criminal defense attorney who has successfully defended hundreds of criminal cases. We focus on cases others consider difficult or unwinnable, and we approach witness tampering charges by attacking the government’s proof of intent.
If you’re charged with threatening a witness, the worst thing you can do is talk to investigators without a lawyer. Federal agents will claim you’re making things worse by not cooperating, that explaining yourself will clear things up. It won’t. Witness tampering is a separate crime from whatever you were originally under investigation for, and statements you make to agents trying to “clarify” what you said to a witness will be used against you at trial. Don’t talk. Get counsel immediately.
We’ve been featured in the New York Post, Newsweek, Bloomberg, and Business Insider covering high-stakes federal cases. We’re available 24/7 because federal charges don’t wait for business hours – and we represent clients coast-to-coast. Call us before you make any statements to law enforcement, before you try to “fix” the situation, before you assume this will blow over. Federal prosecutors don’t file witness tampering charges unless they intend to pursue them.