This is Part 1 of an article that I wrote with my colleague Margaret Cassidy for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers publication, The Champion. In this part, we provide an overview of the mandatory self-reporting obligations in the Federal...
By Sara Kropf One thing you quickly learn as defense counsel is that the government has considerably more power than you do. In pre-indictment discussions, if I push back too hard on the government, the prosecutor could decide to add more charges to the indictment or...
By Sara Kropf Just this week, a federal judge sentenced a former University of Arkansas engineering professor to a year and a day in prison. He had pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to the FBI. I’ve written before about how a false statements...
By: Jaime Rosenberg The Department of Justice keeps touting its focus on FARA prosecutions—even if it is having a hard time winning them. In late March 2022, U.S. District Court Judge Anthony Trenga granted a new trial to a former business partner of President Donald...
By Sara Kropf The pandemic has brought many changes to the practice of law, but perhaps the biggest is the ubiquity of video calls to replace meetings and regular phone calls. There are definite upsides: less travel and lower bills to clients as a result, more...
By Sara Kropf For the government to win at trial, it must convince all 12 jurors to vote guilty. For the defendant to win at trial, he must convince all 12 jurors to vote for acquittal. If there is an acquittal, then the case is over, and the government cannot try...
By Sara Kropf If the Department of Justice has accused someone of a crime, it's no surprise that he can’t say, “aw, ya got me,” and walk away from the accusation. Au contraire. DOJ will prosecute that person to the fullest extent of the law and the whole process will...
By Andrea L. Moseley On April 4, 2022, the Department of Justice's Anti-Trust Division (the "Division") provided some welcome guidance on its Leniency Program. The Division announced updates to its Leniency Policy and issued a revised set of nearly 50 frequently asked...
By Sara Kropf I don’t like Steve Bannon. His political views are distasteful, to say the least. There have been credible allegations that he defrauded people. He was the architect of several awful Trump’s policy decisions like withdrawing from the Paris Climate...
By Sara Kropf In a high-profile case in the Eastern District of New York, the Department of Justice has once again shown that it cannot be trusted when it comes to discovery. DOJ recently disclosed that it had failed to give 15,500 pages of emails from its star...