By Sara Kropf When about 98% of federal criminal cases end with a plea bargain, the sentencing process plays a much larger role in a white-collar defense lawyers’ practice than most people realize. At sentencing, we try to focus the court on the client as a person and...
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 Andrea Moseley One of the most difficult things to do as a white-collar criminal defense attorney is defend a client against allegations in an area of the law that is vague. This is especially true when the prosecution of certain types of crime have little history...
By Sara Kropf The Department of Justice’s “supplemental and amended” sentencing memorandum in the Roger Stone criminal case is nothing short of extraordinary. You can find a copy of the updated Stone memo here. Lots of commentators have hit the high points about this...
By Sara Kropf Back in September 2018, I wrote about how Michael Cohen was pleading guilty without the benefit of a cooperation agreement. I said that it was possible that the government would later file a Rule 35 motion, seeking a reduction in his sentence based on...
By Dan Portnov Last week convicted and newly accused sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was found injured in his cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC), while awaiting his trial. This came shortly after his attorneys lost their bid to have him freed on bail or,...
By: Sara Kropf A judge says a lot of things during a sentencing. Two of them are really, really important. First is the number of months in prison. “One hundred twenty” is a lot different from “a year and a day.” Second is whether the sentence imposed for multiple...
By: Sara Kropf “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.” - Bryan Stevenson The fundamental truth of Mr. Stevenson's quote is tested every time a defendant is sentenced after conviction. Too often, prosecutors act at sentencing as though they cannot...
By: Sara Kropf On November 1, 2018, several new amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines went into effect. Two of them are quite positive developments for defendants—and their lawyers—in white-collar criminal cases. As a procedural matter, the new amendments were...
By: Sara Kropf On August 21, 2018, former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to multiple criminal counts, including campaign finance fraud. During his plea hearing, Cohen implicated the President in the crime, saying that Cohen had paid Stormy Daniels...