By Sara Kropf The Department of Justice repeatedly issues guidance to beg coerce encourage companies to self-report wrongdoing and, in effect, sell out their executives as the wrongdoers. As part of this “cooperation,” companies will conduct an internal investigation,...
By Sara Kropf When I represent an individual client, a joint defense agreement with my client's employer can be extremely helpful. The company can share information and documents to help me advise my client about agreeing to a voluntary interview or prepare for grand...
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 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 Lawyer Sidney Powell appeared at a press conference a few days ago as a member of the President’s legal team and made a few jarring comments (most notably about Hugo Chavez trying to rig the U.S. election). A few days later, the President’s lead personal...
By: Sara Kropf With all the talk in the media about grand jury subpoenas, it’s important to understand that subpoenas aren’t the only way that the government can demand documents and testimony. One of the little-known but often-used methods is a Civil Investigative...
By: Sara Kropf The search of attorney Michael Cohen’s office by federal agents led to a phalanx of “former federal prosecutors” quoted by the media. That’s not surprising. To be fair, I know a lot of great former federal prosecutors who provide informative quotes to...
By: Sara Kropf The government filed its opposition to Michael Cohen’s motion for a temporary restraining order today. I wrote earlier this week about the search warrant and noted that there would be a court battle coming. Well, here it is. Oddly, the public docket has...
By: Sara Kropf I recently participated on a panel at the excellent NACDL White Collar Defense College with Ellen Brotman, Preston Pugh, Brian Bieber and Cynthia Orr. The College aims to teach lawyers how to handle white-collar cases from start to finish. We were...
By: Sara Kropf When I was a brand-new associate at a big firm, I volunteered to work on an internal investigation into accounting irregularities at a public company. I knew nothing about internal investigations. Before we started interviewing employees, a partner...